


I, Immortal

by WyldCard4



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Immortals, Magic-Users, Mystery, Self-Insert, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:47:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 146,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WyldCard4/pseuds/WyldCard4
Summary: Features include an SI that actually makes lots of mistakes and doesn't remember as much about the setting as the author can look up, characters acting in their own self-interest, setting-appropriate levels of interpersonal drama, characters acting insane because it's TVD, setting-appropriate levels of treachery and backstabbing, a thorough exploration of TVD creatures and magic, and Vicki Donovan.





	1. Chapter 1

**Wyld**

"What _are_ you?" I looked up from my bed and saw the small woman crouched on my computer desk who had asked the question. She was crouched on all fours, resembling a cat. I saw her face was covered in piercings and tattoos.

"Ah!" I leapt back in bed. A long forked tongue darted out from the stranger's mouth and tastes the air.

"I asked you a question. What. Are. You." She leaned towards me. I saw her chest armored in some form of pale leather. "You don't belong here."

"Really?" I asked with some surprise. Then I considered. "This is my house! How did you get in here?" I looked at the door, which was unlocked, but it was creaky and closed, how could someone have opened it and gotten to the desk without my _noticing_. Had I been asleep? There were even a few cups she would have had to avoid on the side facing the door.

"I didn't," She answered. "You are supposed to be dead. All of you are." She licked the air again. "Where is this? Where am I?" Her voice betrayed a confusion similar to mine.

"I haven't seen anything like you before. I just got out of the shower." I looked at her. "I'm a man, an American. What are _you_."

The woman inhales. "I am a..." She trailed off. "There's more of you here!"

I looked around the room. "My dad's downstairs."

She looked around somewhat frantically. "And a woman's been in here. Dogs, cats..." She glanced up at the ceiling, licked the computer monitor behind her. "Where is this place?"

"America. The northeast. Massachusetts," I offered.

She frowned. "That's where I'm from."

"It's 2017 if that helps." I considered running.

"It..." She shrugged. "Not really. Calendar's shouldn't matter for that. We got them all." She looked at me, her eyes wide. "This is impossible!"

"...tell me about it." I answered. She closed her eyes. "I told you what I am. What are _you?_ "

"For you, what is coming. If you're a human, then there's one choice." She jumped from the desk to my bed effortlessly. "You get one chance. It's more than you gave us." She reeled back. "You can even get more. Maybe _you_ will be lucky."

The fangs were in my throat before I even saw her move forward.

[hr][/hr]

I woke up in the dark. Dirt clung to my naked body. My hand went to my neck and felt a raw, small set of bite marks. I'd been at home, filling out a jumpchain, and then that woman had showed up. Was it a dream? Was I still dreaming? It had been so vivid.

I pushed myself up, noticing a surprising lack of pain. I'd just gotten out of surgery. Had that woman's bite been venomous as well as fanged? I had my glasses on, but nothing else. Had she dumped my body somewhere? It was foggy and humid, but not actually raining. It felt cold, which was fair as I was naked. I blinked hard, something was wrong with my eyes. Were my glasses broken? felt my throat again, and the rawness was gone. So many aches and pains, gone.

As I started to move, I tripped over something on the ground in front of me. I produced a yelp and looked down. It was too dark to see anything. I touched it, and the hard, cool plastic felt like a cooler. Flipping it open I smelled something _delicious_.

"Christ," I muttered, remembering exactly the jumpchain I'd filled out. Was there _any_ feasible connection here? I looked at my hand and splayed my fingers out, but it was too dark to see anything but the little spots in my vision. Good smelling blood, fast healing, the change in my vision, could it actually have something to do with my Vampire Diaries power set? The strange woman had said I had one chance, but she couldn't be talking about something this insane.

I picked up one of the bags in the dark, fumbling around the tubes for a moment before instinct kicked in. I needed the blood _now_. I ripped the pack open and began to inhale. The wave of salty goodness was one I'd tasted hundreds of times when I bit my lip or had a nosebleed, but I'd never _wanted_ it before. The metallic tang was intimately familiar to me; it tasted like _anticipation._ It was like nothing I'd felt before. When blood rushed down my throat in a nosebleed I'd always felt sick, but now every drop made me feel better. All too soon it was gone, and I was pushing my hands back into the cooler. Six packs later I managed to stop.

"This could be a problem," I said to myself. I snapped the cooler shut. So I was naked, in the woods at night, covered with someone else's blood. This could not look good. I sat down on the cooler, licking my fingers, and tried to focus. The Vampire Diaries jump gave a lot of powers, and I'd taken a great looking build to make one hell of an immortal witch. What drawbacks had I taken? Mikael and Finn were both comatose, the Brotherhood didn't have the Cure, oh _crap_ I'd gotten cocky enough to take the _Gemini Prison_ hadn't I?

"Do I have a soulmate in here?" I asked myself. I got up and hefted the cooler easily. No street lights or cars on the road, but if this was the Prison World then there wouldn't be. If I recalled correctly, Damon was probably murdering an innocent couple right around here if the show was starting. Dealing with _that_ needed some thought.

I scratched my neck. Why _would_ this be a jumpchain? Was that woman, that _thing_ , my "Benefactor?" The premise of a jumpchain was usually tied to some powerful entity sending you into fictional dimensions for fun, but that thing had looked as confused as I felt. Obviously I might just be in a coma or dreaming, nothing about this felt like a dream. Maybe my throat was just ripped out and this was someone's idea of heaven or hell? It didn't really matter much, yet. I just needed to find a change of clothes.

I found a sign for a service station after what felt like a half hour of walking, though it was dark and I lacked a watch or phone to tell me the time.

The gas station had a working bathroom, light, and boxes of road food. I didn't think I needed the food anymore, but it still seemed worthwhile to secure it. I couldn't find a flashlight or a set of clothes, but this seemed like a reasonable place to stop until morning. Actually, would I get a morning? I'd only watched six seasons of The Vampire Diaries, though I was somewhat spoiled on later seasons. Did the prison reset at twenty-four hours or twelve?

After I washed up I surveyed the small service station. Employees' only bathroom, no restaurant, a few empty parked trucks and cars which might have been more exciting if I knew how to drive. I wasn't sure if my strength was significantly improved or if modern windows are rather fragile, but breaking into the vehicles proved easy once I found a large rock. This provided me with a jacket and blanket, but no pants or undershirt. I found a few flip phones which had power and reception, but 911 only got a machine and my home phone number and my mother's cellphone proved even less receptive. My father's number got the answering machine of a stranger.

If I really had superpowers, the full set that I "bought" with "Choice Points," then now was the time to consider them. I thought back and remembered what I had written, an image clear as day in my head.

"Greatest Witch Ever." I pointed at a window and it shattered after I concentrated. That felt very satisfying. "True Immortal," I whispered to myself and picked up a large shard of glass. "Alright, don't cut the palm, that's stupid if this fails," I told myself, and slid the glass very slowly in a horizontal line on my arm. After a moment I felt pain, which vanished a second later. I wiped up blood, and it smelled so good I nearly bit into my arm. No cut remained where I'd pushed in the glass.

I headed to the "take a penny, leave a penny" tray took a solid looking nickle out of it. I had telekinetic power, what about subtlety? I tossed the nickle on the counter and thought "heads, land on heads." My shriek of excitement at the 50% likely outcome was one of my less dignified moments.

Twenty five flips later I had gotten bored at being able to dictate coin tosses. Going into the employees' only restroom I found a mirror and looked over myself. I'd taken a "background" in this world, unable to stand my sickly, overweight, fragile body. Whoever I had "jumped" into wasn't in great shape, but it was a lot better than mine a week out from mouth surgery. The high of a body that felt _normal_ to me was second only to the high of drinking blood. I looked over my body in the mirror, unzipping the jacket to get a view of my chest, which was a bit less hairy than my old one.

If this was like a "jump" to The Vampire Diaries, or if I actually _was_ living a Choose Your Own Adventure somehow, then wouldn't I have bought my usual powers? True Immortality, Soulmate, Witch background...

"Oh crap, he's got a family," I whisper as I find an entirely new set of memories come into the view of my mind's eye.

Jeff Foxworth was a fifteen year old boy in Mystic Falls. Looked white, though he was Bonnie Bennett's second cousin and came from a quite mixed background. Jeff knew less about his witchy cousin than I did, though he knew of the entire main cast that lived in town before the start of the series. Jeff had a crazy dad and a mother of surprisingly strong witch capabilities. Jeff's mother had given him crash course on magic, legally defined as homeschooling, since his thirteenth birthday. I got the feeling that if the Foxworths existed in the main continuity of the show they probably ignored things for a while and ran for it when they caught wind of the Originals coming to town.

The last thing _Jeff_ remembered before waking up in the woods was doing a powerful spell involving the Other Side that had started to go very, very wrong. He'd been trying to commune with his ancestors, which gave me the idea, from out of character knowledge, he might have accidentally kicked over the anthill that was contacting Qetsiyah. Jeff knew Bonnie's cool little spell to burn a piece of paper and send it to someone else, but if that would work across a prison dimension wasn't something I knew. It was logical to find a pad of paper in a truck and do the spell, though.

Jeff's memories were another very solid piece of evidence against this being an "ordinary" hallucination. Extraordinary hallucinations were still possible, but there was no getting around two entirely separate life stories in my head being a bit more than what I could expect from someone drugging me with LSD or a stroke putting me in a coma. I had to think this was in some way, "real." My dreams were tricky things, but "I think therefore I am" was one of the oldest philosophical ideas. A major change to my thinking and an outside trigger suggested this was categorically distinct from a hallucination.

The best thing about Jeff, according to himself and his mother, was that he knew a _lot_ of magic. In two years he'd already maxed out what his mother had learned in her lifetime, spurring them to try the ancestor communion ritual.

Jeff only knew a few rumors about the Gemini Coven or the New Orleans Witches and that was enough to make him fairly sure he never, ever wanted to visit a big city.

I sat in the gas station, not even a little bit tired from the walk, the experiments or the spell. What I was, was thirsty. I looked longingly at the cooler which held the blood packs and closed my eyes, envisioning Stefan Salvatore biting into a woman's neck so hard that her head fell off. _That is what happens if you lose control._ I reminded myself of Silas compelling a person to cut himself open and fill a large drink with blood, imagined the fear and horror of having no choice about doing that.

It wasn't enough. The excuses rolled in. _Damon isn't a Ripper and he says it's because he knows not to deny the bloodlust. Lexie did just fine. Caroline didn't kill anyone when she woke up because she was in a hospital with enough blood so when she attacked the nurse she didn't need to drain her dry._

This time I stopped after four packs of blood. I didn't want to check to see how many I had left. If my idea of the Prison World was right I'd just need to find a hospital, right? There'd be more blood there and it would refill every day. That mental image, a room full of blood, was the most calming one I'd ever had.

Suddenly I got a burst of panic as a thought hit me. _If I "bought" a companion here, is she back in the woods where I woke up?_ It made perfect sense. If I hadn't tripped over the cooler I'd have missed it. If a girl was nearby asleep I doubted I would have noticed her unless she was bleeding. Even if she was awake, well, I wouldn't necessarily have been the must trustworthy fellow at the time.

"Soulmate," I whispered out loud. The Soulmate was the reason it was so hard not to take The Vampire Diaries so early in the chain. The mystique of there truly being one person out there for me, special and imperfect and human, was too important to pass up. She was the reason I thought I'd risk the Gemini Coven Prison, the wrath of Originals, or a coven of angry witches after my head.

Of course if she did arrive exactly like I did she'd be naked and alone in the woods. I picked up a rock and smashed into another truck, a flash of raw disgust at myself overwhelming me before it settled into a familiar and patient self-dislike. I was going to find a high-powered flashlight and I was going to _find her_.  
[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**

I ran as fast as I could down the stairs.

"Lauren, come back this instant!" The thing with my mother's voice shouted. It was hard to keep running with that voice behind me, angry and desperate. But this wasn't my mother's anger or desperation, it was Hiliard's.

I scrambled down and through the door, slamming it shut behind me. A burst of will and I felt springs and pins in the doorknob break and reform to keep it locked.

"Open the door!" Hillard screamed as I looked around and did a quick check. The E-Reader, check. The Ascendant, check. Receptacle, check. Alright, now I just needed a wicked strong source of power like the one we kept locked in this basement.

"Hello there," I told the demon, Henrik. He looked like a young man, dead except for his eyes. Ashen grey skin and furious eyes. He was wrapped in chains and held in a magical circle that I broke with my shoe. His glare didn't change.

I pulled out the Ascendant crystal and began to chant the rote. I didn't know the language, but I'd always been good at reciting long lines of a foreign language without having to know what they meant. Henrik's mouth opened but no air escaped his lungs as he felt me begin to pull on his power. He had so much power, too. If I was a lake, he was an ocean. Mom had said he was a thousand years old, though I don't know how anyone could know for sure.

The door flung open and my mother's face appeared, contorted in hate. Not as fast as I was on the spell work, but still fast. Her eyes went wide when she saw the Ascendant crystal in my hand and she reached forward, a wave of telekinetic force pulling it towards her.

Mom would have known why that wouldn't work. The crystal was still close enough for me to finish the last words of my spell. The blow hit me like a fire truck and everything went black.

[hr][/hr]

I woke up to a bright flashlight beam in my eyes. "Gah!" I said articulately.

"Wow," A voice, with an odd pitch rang clearly. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be, I'll be..." _No one else should be here_. The telekinetic force pinned the person against a tree in an instant.

"Wow," Said the same voice, sounding well, impressed. "Well, this seems a bit classic." Then their laughter came out, unrestrained and happy.

" _Who are you_?" I asked, pulling the flashlight and turning it on the figure. He was half-naked, a jacket and a blanket tied around his waist were his only clothing. He looked tall, lanky, pale in the flashlight, somewhat buff. Where I'd picked him up there was a cooler and a strange little bin on the ground.

"I've been getting that a lot today," The figure mused. "Or something like it, anyway." He was silent for a moment. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Evil witch possessed my mom. I'm guessing you're on her side," I answered. He released a strange high-pitched chuckle that was almost a snort.

"Not even close," He answered. "I assume you've never heard of a jumpchain?"

I frown, turning over the words in my head. "What is that, some kind of magic to travel between worlds."

"Actually, um, kind of, but probably not the way you're thinking. If you haven't heard of it than it won't help for me to explain it. Last I remember, some kind of, um, weird woman seemed to be trying to kill me. Then I showed up here with um, powers that seemed connected to a creative writing project I was working on right before she attacked." His voice was sheepish and the explanation seemed to run out of air as he finished the thought.

"That's, well, unexpected." I nodded at him, and realized he couldn't see me. "Don't even think about lying; have you heard of the witch Hiliard?" He didn't seem to react to the name even as I watched closely.

"Can't say I have." He pauses for a moment. "Actually, tell me if I'm wrong here, is she by any chance the leader or member of some kind of large, frighteningly powerful coven of witches that has a really strong reason to get at you?"

" _Yes_ ," I hiss. "What do you know about them?"

"Very, very little. It ties back to the writing project I mentioned. It was in well, early conceptual stages, and that was one of the features of someone's back story. I don't know a lot more, besides maybe something to do with body swaps?"

" _Yes_ , I breathed. "They look for the strongest hosts they can find, and then they steal their bodies, possessing them until they wear out, and find new ones. As for wanting me badly, well..." I couldn't help but smile just a bit in a flash of pride.

"Well, that character, another trait I wrote _was_ being the greatest witch ever," He answered, and that made me feel very happy for a moment.

"Come on. I'm not _that_ good," I deflect. He laughs again.

"If I'm right, you really are. Note, this is assuming a variety of very strange factors, but for me every possible outcome is exactly that. So, would you by any chance know anything about Gemini Coven Prison Worlds?"

"That's what I made," I answered. "Or well, something very much like that. I mean, it wasn't a _good_ plan, but I didn't have a lot of time."

"Huh. So this is new. As in, all of this world is new?" His voice showed a good deal of curiosity. "What day is it? I mean, the date, to the year?"

"September 2009. Why wouldn't you know that?" I ask.

"Ah. So start of the show," He answered thoughtfully. "Is this Mystic Falls by any chance?"

"Um, the spell I used would send me somewhere safe at random if I understood it right." I shrugged. "What do you mean by start of the show?" I waited through several moments of silence.

"Do you know what a fanfic is? Fanfiction, I mean?" He sounded embarrassed.

"Well yes. Like, you write Harry Potter and Hermione Granger getting together because they made more sense than Ron and Harry. Is this about that 'writing project' thing you mentioned?" After a second of silence I continue. "Are you saying I'm on a TV show?" I look around for any unexpected cameras, though I didn't think it was likely.

"...very much sorta kind of? This might take a while, you mind letting me down?" I consider it.

"Alright, here's the deal. I believe you, but I am really jumpy. I put you up in a tree and we talk. That fair?"

He nodded. "Very fair under the circumstances." I place him in a tree with another telekinetic push.

"So, the very short version is a kind of writing game people do online called a jumpchain. The idea is say, you go to Harry Potter, and you write-up your life there for ten years, and then go to Star Trek and write a bit about that. There are rules and stuff on how to do it, kind of like a video game or one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books, but it's all pretty free form. For a couple of reasons the situation I am in resembles something I just wrote for that, starting a chain in a show called The Vampire Diaries."

"Huh," I answer. "That is, well, very strange, but it is consistent. So I'm not a vampire so I guess that's my dashing love interest?" He laughs at that.

"Well, the chain allows you to make, create, well it calls them companions. Original characters to join you on your adventures. Your situation fits what I wrote for the 'companion' I statted out, um, wrote about."

"I have played videogames. I know what stats mean," I tell him. "So I _don't_ have a vampire boyfriend waiting in the wings?"

"Not that I know of, and none of this show's vampires are exactly romance material. Well, out of character they are, but not if you take what they do seriously."

I frown. "Like the people who rage against Harry Potter as a Satanist cult thing?"

"Um, not at all. I mean, the nicest ones still kill people, quite a few of them." Her explained

"The switch that turns off humanity, yeah. I mean I've never heard a good thing about a vampire, but I mean, you said this is a TV show about vampires so I might have been confused." I nodded.

"Well, I'd say that it's not like Buffy where vampires are just flat out evil. But the vampire condition gives bloodlust, strength, heightens everything emotional and lets you turn it all off. Vampire _personalities_ can be romantic, or friendly, but wherever they go, people die." He laughed nervously.

"Huh," I answered. "So like, it's a show about vampire hunters?"

I could hear some humor in his voice. "Actually, no. It's totally a show about vampires. A very dark show about very bad people whether or not they're vampires."

"Cool," I smiled. "Hiliard killed my parents. Right now I think getting together with a bunch of very bad people is _exactly_ what I want to do before I go and meet her again."

"Well now," He said. "Is it wrong that I really like the sound of that?"

I lifted him down from the tree. "So, let's say I believe your story. Your story is crazy, but nothing about this day is sane. If you know so much, what do we do next?"

"Well, step one is get out of this prison. After that, there's a few names I would look up. Silas, Amara, Klaus, Qetsiyah, Dahlia, Elijah, to name a few." My head spun for a second at some of those names, and the gravity of listing the ones I knew with the ones I didn't.

"You mean, you think you can find people like _that_ , get them to help _me_?" I ask.

"I think you're more of a bad ass than you know," The man next to me answered. "I think either one of us could, and together I think we're going to work miracles."

It sounded pretensions, even ridiculous, but he said it too sincerely and my day was too strange not to believe him.

"Name's Lauren." I offered him my hand. "What's yours?" He was quiet for a heartbeat.

"That's a harder question than you'd think. For now, let's go with Jeff." He picked up the cooler in one hand, the weird-looking container in the other. "Mind carrying the flashlight? It's a bit of a walk to the first place we can get a car. I'd like to get to a town, find some real clothes and all that jazz."

"Jazz, huh?" I pick up the flashlight. "Where'd you get that outfit, anyway?"

"Um, that has nothing to do with jumpchain. When that weird woman attacked me I'd _just_ gotten out of the shower..."  
[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

[hr][/hr]

"So who exactly are these Gilberts?" Lauren asked as she drove. Already "worth 400 CP" to me was someone who knew how to drive, though I was sure I could have managed it, eventually. Not like I should have been about trying to manage a machine capable of killing me for a split second lack of attention.

"Jeremy, Jenna and Elena are the survivors. The mom and dad, well, Elena and Jeremy's mom and dad, Jenna's sister, they died in a car crash this summer. Elena's a doppelganger for the immortal Amara, one of several. She is incredibly socially savvy, absolutely ruthless, and has impeccable survival instincts. Her kid brother is a latent vampire hunter, and I mean that in the Buffy sense of magical superpowers in his bloodline, and he's probably the only one who can see through her bullshit. Jenna is kept in the dark about everything until she gets turned into a vampire and murdered."

"I thought you said the show wasn't about vampire hunters?" Lauren asked.

I shrugged. "Jeremy's not the lead. Also this was like, season five or something before it came up. I'm probably being too harsh on Elena, as she goes from PTSD to brand new trauma to relying on crazy vampires for survival until she finally turns and has to deal with a year of people fighting to turn her back to human while she very much insists she agrees with them while doing everything possible to stay a vampire. Anyway, if we're in the show I think we are I'd rather get a literal lay of the land for places we might have to fight." Lauren was looking bored, so I changed topics. "So, how was being raised a witch?"

"Huh." She frowned a bit. "Fun I guess. I was taught magic as early as I can remember. Our coven, the one in Los Angeles, comes into our powers early and strong before we taper off a bit. I always liked having a secret from other kids at school. I always liked learning spells and I never freaked out when I had to do something other kids thought was icky. For me it was just life. Both my parents are, _were_ witches. My mom had a day job as a producer, my dad worked with other witches and taught other witch kids like me."

"Your parents." I pause. "You know there's an Other Side. I don't know a lot about..."

"No," Lauren said firmly. "Not unless we come across something safer than anything I've ever heard of. Four times out of five someone new has to die, and half the time when no one _has to_ someone does _anyway_ because they did a spell wrong or can't handle the blow back. I'm not going to be another sad old woman wasting her life trying to pull her parents into a new life when they might move on to somewhere decent anyway."

"Huh." I nodded. "You're the subject matter expert."

"If we do that, we're doing it right, when everything is safe and we can spend the time to do it right. Not when we're trapped in this weird resetting prison world and preparing for war with a coven of body snatching witches. Knowing my parents they might have moved on from the Other Side by the time that is done."

"Yeah. I think that works." I paused. "Full disclosure, there is a hell, though I don't know a lot about it and I think only really evil people get dragged there."

"What?" Lauren practically shrieked. "What do you mean you _don't know?"_

"I watched six seasons. Season eight's big bad is the devil, or a psychic who inspired the devil. It's a couple of spoilers I got. I was going to rewatch the series, but then I got stuck in it."

"So I have to worry about the _actual devil_ ," Lauren sounded pissed. "Originals and Devils and _Silas_ are the names you just throw around. You really don't know how weird that is, do you?"

I couldn't help but smile. "I've seen Silas die, Lauren. I know where to find the last pieces of white oak to turn into stakes that can kill the Originals. I will do my best to take them seriously, but I also know just how badly they can lose to a bunch of teenagers and baby vampires with barely 150 years to their names." I paused. "If it helps, I've seen worse things. Things that were exciting or shocking on TV that I wouldn't ever want to really happen. If you want me to set up the gravity of this I can."

"No, that's alright. Let's just not talk about that for a while. Ah, here's the street." Lauren turned the truck into the street the Gilberts lived on. "So is there anything in particular we want to find in there?"

"I think the Gilbert Watch, which is a kind of compass for vampires, but needs some equipment to run. If we could find a Gilbert Ring great, but that's a long-term investment for us. There's journals in there I think that might help a bit, but I don't know how to find most of the really good stuff in this town yet. Emily's Grimoire, Esther's body, the tomb full of vampires, all the neat stuff requires some research. I'd want some time here anyway, even if six months before our first shot at getting out is too long for my tastes."

"How sure are you about any of this 'jumpchain' stuff, anyway?" Lauren asks.

I consider. It's a decent question. "Eighty, ninety, ninety-five percent sure _something_ is happening based on it. Let's say sixty percent sure that these details are literally worth planning around, but I don't see a better alternative until I see something that doesn't actually fit.

"Alright. Let's say six months in, we have a fail proof witch detector. No, let's make it five months in. Then, it's seven months out, no sign there's been a witch besides me in this place. What's your plan B?" Lauren's voice was curious.

I considered the question carefully. "I think there's very little _to_ do besides look around for something out of context and see what fun there is to do around here. If you've seen a movie where all the people vanish or a Groundhog's Day ripoff you know the gist of that."

"Yeah, I guess I do." She sounded more subdued. "Yeah, if you're just stuck in here, well, huh. I'm just as screwed, right? No wonder you think the jumpchain stuff is real, if that's your way home."

"Well yeah. You came here, and someone you hate isn't going to benefit from your death and you get to live out a long and healthy life even if you age here, which I'm honestly not sure about. I'd say it's a win, just a qualified win. If my um, host didn't come here he'd probably be dead as well. I am ready to take what comes." Then I smile at the girl seated next to me. "Now, let's see what it's like breaking into a house without anyone to complain about it." I stood and raised my hand at the door, feeling the rush of magic as it blasted open.

"Show off," Lauren said happily. "I was just going to break a window."

"Feel free. Nobody's home _anywhere_." She picked up a rock, focused, and threw, taking down a window.

"By the way, if we find out everyone else just turned invisible, you're paying for that window," I told her, and entered the Gilbert house.

"You broke the door," Lauren scowled.

"Why officer, how could I have ripped a door off its hinges and thrown it across a lawn? It surely must have been a freak tornado," I grinned and beckoned her in.

[hr][/hr]

After tearing apart the Gilbert attic for most of an hour, Lauren found the journals in the closet of the master bedroom.

On one hand, it was very, very easy to read the journals of Doctor Johnathan Gilbert, Mystic Falls' resident expert on vampire hunting and crackpot science during the Civil War. The journals were exciting, evocative, and frightening, conveying the dread and terror of supernatural evil destroying a town piece by piece. On the other hand, being the resident expert in a small town during the Civil War did not actually make him as well-informed as the watcher of a TV show about his world.

"So now what?" Lauren asked as I put away the first journal.

"Well I found out where Emily Bennett's Grimoire went around the time she died, seems Gilbert gave it to the father of the Salvatore brothers, who I'm pretty sure took it with him to his grave. I don't entirely remember that from the show, but I'm willing to go grave robbing in this dimension and it's not like his family would mind anyway."

"What's so great about this Emily Bennett? I've seen plenty of grimoires. Even have my own." Lauren pulled out a slim Kindle from her pocket and waved it casually.

"Well, Emily did a spell that's still around, keeping a couple dozen vampires captive and starving, and with that grimoire we could open the tomb. There's also a handful of quite useful spells that I don't actually know in it involving enchanted objects I'm pretty sure she made with doppelganger blood."

"Ah, yeah I can see that being handy." Lauren nods. "Can it help us get back to Earth?"

I consider. " _Maybe_. I am interested in anything I can find about doppelganger blood, as I might be able to substitute my own blood for theirs. It is a bit of a long shot, but if it works I have something I would try that might keep anyone who enters this dimension from going home. It's a tentative chain, but it's the best one I have right now."

"Got it. So we go to the cemetery, dig up a book, and begin the escape plan. What's after that?"

"Find a house with clothing you like that fits your size, actually." I suggest. "If everything resets once a day, then unless you want to wear the same clothing for six months or make a trip to the mall every day that seems like the best option for some normality."

"Huh. That makes sense. We might have to leave Mystic Falls, then. We'd want to find somewhere with clothing that fits right, good food in the kitchen or nearby, a lot of things really. I'm hungry, you want anything?"

I pause for a moment, my mind focused on the cooler of blood. "No, I'm good for now. I ate a lot in that gas station. Stress eating I guess." In my head I remembered a fact that was very salient and shouldn't have been; witch blood was as tasty as a normal human's. "You know, I think it's easier if I just go and get the Grimoire myself. You um, see if Elena's clothes fit you, or if Jenna's do." I walked out of the room, knowing I looked like a bundle of nerves but just not caring. Mystic Falls had a hospital, and that hospital should have all the blood I needed to stop me thinking about what it'd be like fresh from the vein.

[hr][/hr]  
My vision cleared and I looked at the carnage. Sixteen bags of blood. I had only had to control myself for a couple of hours, and now sixteen bags before I could stop? Something was wrong. No vampire needed that much blood in the show.

How much blood did a True Immortal need? Could this have been a trap option, promising power while being as much of a curse as vampirism or more? Was I just _weak_? Maybe giving in repeatedly was just making the urge stronger, but what if resisting made me snap and feed on Lauren?

I found a patient recovery room and showered myself off quickly before I went looking for the cemetery. It was a small town and I was very fast, so it was an easy find. It took longer to figure out where the Salvatore family had been buried. It turned out that with my degree of superhuman strength it was not hard at all to dig up a grave. Right in the coffin was the grimoire, sitting on the skeleton's chest.

"Sorry, sir. If it helps, your sons..." I paused. "Try." I finished lamely.

A grimoire did not go down as smoothly as the journals had. The notes were all in English, but the symbols and drawings were unfamiliar even to Jeff and incomprehensible to my old mind. That being said, it was no longer hard to figure out what this meant. It felt like an emotion building, sorrow into tears or mirth into laughter, and then the spell's nature clicked into place. I had used CP for powerful, savant witchy talents, and they were coming in strong.

The rhythm of reading a page, letting my subconscious work out the spell, and reading a new one was an enjoyable one. When I finished I spent some time thinking about what had just happened and on what I had learned. As I thought, Emily's creation of magical objects used doppelganger blood, though it didn't technically require it. If I had Elena's blood, or Katherine's, I could make anything Emily had made at any time. Without that I would need to wait for celestial events that fit the object, such as the summer solstice for the vampire tracker or the New Moon for the rings of resurrection. Emily was hardly a combat witch, probably weaker than her living descendants, but she had a lot of skill and creativity in her enchantments and doppelganger blood could help a witch do a lot.

Sheila and Bonnie still lived in Mystic Falls. I would need to see if Sheila had a Grimoire I could use. If I could find where Bonnie's mother ended up that might give me another one. The father and son pair working with Elijah in season two would be the real gold mine, a family with a collection of grimoires they had recovered, though I doubted even that would hold a candle to the knowledge written down by the Original Witch or Qetsiyah, but finding _those_ was a lot more than I could handle for now.

When I returned to the Gilbert residence Lauren was looking mildly annoyed, but had changed clothes. "The aunt's my size except for the shoes, which are Elena's size. Lucky." I wilted a bit under her glare.

"I'm glad to hear it. That makes exploring Mystic Falls a bit easier. Here." I handed Lauren the Grimoire. "Not sure when the world resets or if the Grimoire will go back to the grave when it does. Magical objects might be different, but they might just be carried along for the same ride."

"Makes sense." She opens the Grimoire and glances at it. "Are we any closer to knowing what you need to know?"

"Yes. I know a lot more about doppelganger blood, and I have a few experiments to try, but I think there's another thing I want to start first." I look around. "Do you want Elena's room or Jenna's?"

"Why?" She seems nonplussed by the question.

"No reason I guess. Seemed like we'd sleep here before we moved on."

"I'll take the grownup room thank you very much. So, what aren't you telling me?"

"Whatever do you mean?" I asked. "I told you about the jumpchain..."

"Yes. You've also _implied_ you are a witch, but you also move too quickly, don't get hungry, and dig up graves in minutes. What _else_ are you?" Lauren's glare was strong.

"...it's called a True Immortal," I explained. "Something older than a vampire. Qetsiyah made it, if you know that name. Oldest and strongest witch in history, talked into it by her lover while he was in love with her maid. I'm strong, I'm fast, and I need blood. There's other parts, but you're right, I'm not just a witch."

"And where did the blood in the cooler you left here come from?"

I had to step back at the power in her gaze. "To bring up the stupid thing again, I 'bought' an item in the jumpchain that said it was a refilling supply of blood. If it is created by magic, or comes from hell, or disappears from hospitals, I don't know."

"You're not lying." She stated it as a fact. "I don't think you're crazy, either. So if that's true, why does someone like you enough to give you all of this? Power always has a price."

"If I had to guess, this is a test. That woman, the one that bit me, said I had a chance. I don't know what I have a chance _at_. Maybe this is some kind of lesson, or I'm being sedated with a fantasy. There are too many unknowns, but I don't think it changes the basics of the idea. We need to get out of this prison if either of us is going to do anything that matters."

"Yeah," Lauren agreed. "I think I might have something that can help with that." She lifted a crystal from a table. "If you're right that a witch will inspect this place every six months, I think I can figure out where she'll enter this place from."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**  
  
Wyld

"So, everything matches what you think it should be?" Lauren asked hopefully as we surveyed the photo album of the Gilbert family I had found.

"Elena's brunette, not a blond, and looks exactly like I would expect, so I don't see what I could be missing. In the book series Elena was a blond, and this one looked like the tan Bulgarian I expected. This is probably the television show I expected unless we did something even weirder than I thought or someone is deliberately trying to trick us." I shrugged.

"Why wouldn't it be the television show?" Lauren asked. I paused to consider.

"Alright, let's say for a moment that both of our universes existed right from the big bang, never touching. I raised my hand and telekinetically summoned a pencil and Elena's diary. "So," I went to the end of the book and made two lines on the white paper. "So, we can assume that there is an interaction between the two worlds, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Keep going." Lauren nodded.

"So if this was based on the books, then it wouldn't require much 'bandwidth' between dimensions to work. An author named LJ Smith gets a vision or a dream of what's happening and writes it down. If it's a TV show, to the point where the actors look the same, then think of all the things that have to align. You need to find an actor who looks exactly right, who has the right voice, and then convey the right tones of voice, makes the right acting choices. The directors, costume designers, everyone would have to be influenced by the same universe."

"I see why that would be hard. So, to be a sounding board, what do you think this means?" Lauren looked vaguely annoyed, but I ignored that for now.

"Two possibilities." I turned the page over for more white space. "One is that your world is somehow influenced by or created by the TV series." I made a straight line, then in the middle of it I drew another line forking away from the main one.

"Huh. So an entire world comes into being because someone makes a TV show about it?" Lauren frowned. "Sounds unlikely."

"If the weird woman I saw was from the future, and time travel is possible, then a lot of things could happen. This could all be happening inside a computer, or be built by robots. That's not likely, but it would fit the data." I shrugged. "It's the most plausible theory to be honest."

"So, someone with incredible money, an eye for detail, and powerful technology built a theme park to exactly match a television show?" Lauren sighs. "And that's the more likely option?"

"Well, the other option breaks a lot of laws of physics. So, you know about quantum physics and the multiverse hypothesis, right?"

Lauren gave me a death glare in response. "Every time anything happens, both things happen, and so there's an infinite number of worlds, right?"

I nod. "But that doesn't make _this_ by itself. In my world there's no magic. So let's assume the laws of physics themselves can be different, but they have to be different in a _lot_ of ways for pure will to impact the universe. I'm not even sure if you could make a universe out of math where it happens like it does for us. And while we say 'infinite' a lot the quantum multiverse doesn't have to include _everything_. Like, flip a coin it can come up heads or come up tails or roll around on the floor, but there's no way it comes up in China. There's only so many variations that _could_ happen. One of those variations making exactly the world that I saw in a television show seems less likely than some kind of robot faking it all," I explain.

"But magic is real," Lauren pointed out. "It doesn't need to be random, it's a balance of nature. If you assume all the worlds have magic in them, then one of those worlds could come up like yours."

"So it'd basically put my world 'downstream' of yours." I nod. "I've thought of that, and maybe it's true, but it's _weird_. Why would the one true magic system have such a small and precise impact on my world? Why is it a TV show, and not a religion or something? Sure, there are reasons I can think of, but they're stretches. Now, maybe the multiverse is just that big, but I have to think something more deliberate fits the evidence better," I explain.

"So like, a theme park built of places you would recognize?" Lauren asked thoughtfully.

"Maybe," I nodded. "I keep circling back to the idea that this is some kind of test, but what would it be testing?"

"Maybe it's more like education?" Lauren suggested. "Like, if you want someone to believe something you don't just show them facts, you make a story about it. You said she thought all humans were dead? Maybe the cat-thing used images you understood to put together the story she wanted to tell?"

"Huh." I nodded. "Still requires some weird things, but if a weird post-human has unlimited resources to try and communicate with someone who thinks very differently, maybe this is how it might do it. Or, say, if she was another really weird attempt at communication and you are the more developed one?"

"I am not an alien robot built to communicate with you," Lauren rolled her eyes.

"Hm, I believe you. But maybe Elena is that 'alien robot' I suggested you might be?" I gestured to the room. "Her whole life might be a message I am supposed to figure out. If some kind of alien were to read the internet it would find a lot of communication through stories. Maybe if some species started from enough distance this might look like neutral ground between our perspectives."

"It's not that, but maybe you're onto something." Lauren nodded. "So if there is a message here, we should look to see if we can find it."

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

Mystic Falls was not my kind of town. I missed California weather, California people, and living in a city that had an actual mall. After breaking into every store and looking through the local Walmart I started to get bored. Jeff had found one Grimoire besides Emily Bennett's in the house of a woman named Sheila Bennett, but it was a lot less interesting than her ancestor's grimoire and contained very little I didn't already know.

The worst part of the town was the food. The Gilberts had a limited fridge and pantry, as fitting a pair of high schoolers and a graduate student all dealing with the trauma of lost family. With the reset striking at 10 PM no restaurants were open and ready for scavenging, leaving me with the habit of breaking into the houses of our "neighbors" to explore potential meals. It was _almost_ enough to envy Jeff's simplistic diet, but blood was too gross for me to ever go all the way into sincere jealousy.

While Jeff worked on his blood experiments, I started to spend most of my time in the library. The internet did work, but it worked weirdly, failing piece by piece as the day wore on until the world reset at about 10 PM every night. Books and electricity didn't shut off, so it was a lot more reliable to keep reading as I looked up local history.

The Founding Families of Mystic Falls were incredibly full of themselves for a group of people who ran all of a small town. The names of the Fells, the Lockwoods, the Gilberts, the Salvatores and the Forbes recurred again and again in the microfiche of the newspapers. It was fairly easy to figure out how the Families had impacted the history of Mystic Falls; every few decades, there would be a spree of supposed animal attacks or a string of arson that would paralyze the town before stopping as suddenly as it started and then the Founding Families would lose a few scions or collapse into marriage and baby announcements as they reacted to the stress of vampire hunting.

The biggest discovery was Jeff's. In the old Salvatore Boarding House he found dozens of journals written by a Stefan Salvatore, a vampire turned in 1864. Jeff laughed when he noted when the journals started. "Ah, after Lexie found him," Jeff laughed. "Before that he was one of the worst of them. He still relapses, too." The two of us divided the journals down the historical middle with Jeff taking the first half and my taking the second half, and the two of us read up on the long life of a vampire.

Stefan was hardly the town's secret protector, having spent several attack periods in entirely different parts of the country, but he still relayed much of the town's secret history as he wrote down his meetings with Bennett witches and ranted about the occasional depredations of his brother, Damon. The gaps, sometimes decades long, Jeff attributed to his "relapses" into preying on humans.

All the Founding Families had their secrets and vampire hunting gear locked somewhere. The Lockwoods had a dungeon complete with chains, the Gilberts had a beach house with a closet full of vampire hunting weapons, Sheriff Forbes had magazines of strangely made wooden bullets hidden in her office and the Fells had records of every vampire "outbreak" the news had indicated along with some hilariously inaccurate notes on witchcraft.

Strangely, it was the ranting speculation on witches that gave me an idea.

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

"Cut along the vein," I muttered as I began experiment #24 with my magical blood. Doppelganger blood was a binding agent for spells, so it stood to reason that my blood, the Immortal template of the doppelganger species, could be used to similar effect.

In practice I'd bled a lot to make gross and foul-smelling pieces of paper. The "floating crane" spell was the best practice one I had found, only needing direct sunlight and air to make it work under normal circumstances. Replacing the celestial event with the blood of a doppelganger was clearly laid out in Emily's grimoire. If my blood just could not substitute in for that of a doppelganger, well, that would be very concerning.

"Any luck?" Lauren asked as she entered Jeremy's room. I looked up, her face was looking pleased.

"Spill it, what'd you do?" I asked in ready capitulation. Lauren's white teeth flashed a broad smile. "Here." She put a book of maps down in front of me and opened it. The red markings in it were Lauren's blood, dribbled from a paper towel and smeared by closing the map book.

"I have it down to two spots," Lauren explained happily. "Remember when I was talking about access points? Even if you can just enter this world anywhere, you wouldn't bother. It would be a lot easier to go through in a hot spot of supernatural energy unless you have the Ascendant for this prison."

"You said the coven had that crystal, though." I frowned. "Why wouldn't they just use that?"

"I came through on the west coast, and to inspect the prison they'd need to be within eight hundred miles. I am guessing Hilliard won't bother with the road trip, she'll have another member of the coven do it close by. So it took a bit of divination, but I made the prison with my own power. Run my blood through that, and we check the entry points closest to the most persistent stains." Lauren pointed at the map. "Hart Island in New York and Salem Village in Massachusetts are the ones we need to check out."

"So we've got it down to two entirely different possible locations, hundreds of miles apart, with a lot of space around it," I muttered. Lauren sighed.

"That is _supposed_ to be where you come in. Your so-called 'AMF' getting any closer to done?" Lauren looked at the latest failed spell critically.

"The anti-magic field happened on the show," I said weakly. "It had caveats, but..."

"Caveats of two doppelgangers, both of them the last two doppelgangers of their line, after their originators died, and produced by a powerful group of witches using unknown methods. Anything else I'm missing?" Lauren picked up the paper crane. "Any other bright ideas?"

"...none I am close to considering," I explained. "If I knew how the immortality spell worked we might have two unique Immortals, which would be a lot closer, but I don't even know where to begin on that."

"I might have something else," Lauren explained. "I've been doing some research into Projection. I think it might work from here, if we could get a link."

I frowned. "Sorry, new to this, or at least my old bits are new to this. You mean like, Astral Projection? Leaving your body and watching somewhere else?"

"Exactly. It's kind of like being a ghost. The Fell journals had some paranoid ranting about invisible witches in their house that got me thinking about the spells that could do that. I think we can at least get to the Other Side from here, if maybe not all the way 'home' to Earth. You know what the Other Side is, right?"

"Paranormal purgatory where dead supernaturals hang out alone until they find peace and 'move on' somewhere?" I asked.

Lauren nodded. "The range of this Projection might not be that good in the physical sense, but it seems like a start," Lauren explained. I nodded, thinking over the ideas. Jeff's memories of Astral Projection seemed to support the idea. One of us could anchor and power the spell, the other could be projected.

"Well, if we can make contact with the real world we can look at doppelganger blood. That might help." I gestured at my failed experiments. "If I knew what was different about my blood compared to Elena's then I might be able to know what I am doing wrong. Katherine's might be better, but I don't think by much." I smile.

"So, you want to anchor or do you want to Project?" Lauren asked.

I thought for a moment, remembering a witch bursting into flames on the show while Projecting. "I think it should be me. I'm more likely to make it out if something goes wrong."  
[hr][/hr]

We decided the best place for the spell was the Salvatore Boarding House. If either Stefan or Damon were there and could notice us then we might be able to get some help from them, and we weren't entirely sure if the Bennett witches could have defenses that might harm us.

We prepared a circle of candles to present a fire hazard, and to provide some elemental energy to channel. Lauren sent me out to bring several large buckets of sand and lake water to balance out the elements while she happily smashed every window in the house to help draw in the energy of the air. I dragged a table to the center of the room and put some chairs in the right places, and we began our spell.

"Projection" was a simple matter for two witches. In between us I put the ancient photograph of Katherine Pierce; one of the most prized possessions of Stefan Salvatore. Seated in his house I visualized the face of Paul Wesley, Stefan's actor in The Vampire Diaries, and hoped the universe hadn't chosen to do anything 'cute' when it came to transporting me into a work of fiction; like confusing the boundaries of an actor and the character. Admittedly, if I somehow projected into my home dimension that would also be quite interesting.

It turned out that Projection was pretty much instant. One moment I was in the Salvatore Boarding House's echo in the Prison World, and the next I was standing in the woods next to what looked like exactly the man I was looking for; along with what was either Elena Gilbert or the actual Nina Dobrev.

"...the original Lockwood Mansion," Stefan was saying. I waved my hand in front of his face to no impact.

"The first Founder's Party," Elena replied. Given the lack of cameras or support staff nearby I had to guess I wasn't on set for a filming of a popular TV show. "Where you signed the registry," Elena went on. I waved my hand in front of her face, which also produced no effect.

"I didn't care that I had gotten something my brother wanted," Stefan explained and I lost interest in what was actually happening. Projecting into the world was a major success by itself. If we could find a way to make actual contact, then we could start gathering support. Two particularly powerful witches could offer a lot of bribery to the locals whenever a real problem came up.

This was enough of a major step forward for me to try to "cancel" the Projection and head back to explain things to Lauren.

"It worked!" I told Lauren and then noticed she was on the floor. "Lauren? Lauren!" I was on my knees. Blood was streaming out of both nostrils and she was gasping for breath, the victim of a serious blow back from the spell's energy drain. Lauren's eyes rolled back in her head when I tried to make eye contact.

A normal person would have tried to help her. An Immortal, powered by blood, always hungry for it, faced with a meal _right there_ , was sucking on her nose and starting to bite down before either of us knew what was happening.

"FUCK!" Lauren shouted and I collapsed, feeling the agony of a headache unlike anything I had ever known as Lauren's spell burst half a dozen blood vessels in my brain.

A full minute later I got up shakily. Lauren curled up against the wall, staring at me, cleaning her face off with a blanket.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. She glared at me. "I couldn't help it."

"You tried to eat my face," Lauren said in an even voice. I knew it was true.

"I..." I paused and tried to think out what I was going to say. "I can't promise it won't happen again. We have to be more careful, or find a way to stop me next time."

"You saw me, bleeding out and from hurt doing something because I trusted you, and your first instinct was to _bite me_. How can I trust you after that?" Lauren's voice was full of strain, but I knew she was actually asking me, it wasn't rhetorical.

"Do you want the long version or the short version?" I asked after another minute.

"The long," Lauren answered.

"In my life, I've had times when I wasn't well, mentally. I've snapped and I've done things I've regretted or hurt people and been unable to make it up to them because I was just that out of it. Right now there's a monster and it isn't just inside me, it is part of me. I don't know how to kill it or how to tame it. If this was a normal situation I'd just say you should leave, but it's not."

"So you're saying I need you and there is nothing we can do about your literally being a threat to my life?" Lauren asked with a hint of anger.

"Do you have a cure for Immortality lying around, or anyone else who might help get you out? Can we make chains for me that I won't be able to break with magic if I get hungry enough? Do you have _any alternative_?" I asked.

"I need to be alone for a while," Lauren said, no longer hiding her disgust. "Meet me at the Gilbert's tomorrow and don't go near there."

"Alright," I answered, and I left Lauren to clean herself up. I broke into a run at super speed as I headed towards the hospital; Lauren's blood was all I could think about.

[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**

It turned out that one thing Mystic Falls was never short of was alcohol. The premise of Beauty and the Beast had never seemed this terrifying before. I had been trapped with someone dangerous, someone stronger than I was and I was dependent on him as long as I ever wanted to see anyone who was not _him_ unless I could figure out how to get out of the Prison World by myself.

After my hangover cleared up I spent several hours working on notes about how to break out by myself. I was hardly surprised when I came up with nothing. Even projecting to the Other Side from this place without another witch as an anchor would require an artifact or power source unlike anything I had ever heard of. Even if I went to Salem and caught someone coming in to inspect the prison, relying entirely on Jeff's theory of "jumpchain," there was no way my odds were better at succeeding if I went it alone.

I met Jeff on the lawn of the Gilbert house. He looked sad, but nothing like I felt. Jeff had gone off on a blood bender, but immortality had its perks and nothing about him was damaged by the excess.

"What have you got?" I asked Jeff.

"Well, I could help you setup a weakening spell. Drain power from me and from my immortality into you, make me less of a threat. It would also make me a lot less able to actively help, and I don't know how to make one that would work fast enough to help you if I snapped again." Jeff handed me a notebook with a few diagrams and comments on such a spell. I looked over the paper carefully and shook my head.

"If I drained enough to be safe it might kill you; and it definitely would make you act sick and useless. Got anything else?"

Jeff was silent for a long time. "Maybe;" He admitted. "It's no guarantee, and it might make you feel worse if you heard it."

"Give me your best guess; do I want to hear it?" I asked.

Jeff sighed. "No, but you don't want to find out about it any other way, either. When I worked on the jumpchain, I filled out an option for a 'companion' in this adventure, as I told you. It wasn't just an ordinary companion, either. Most of the reason I went with _this_ jump was because of the companion option. Jumping into a young adult fantasy drama, it let you play into those tropes. The jumpchain option was a soulmate."

"A what?" I asked, feeling a sense of shock.

"It said _soulmate_ , with all of the meaning that would apply in a drama made for The CW. Imagine filling out a quiz in a magazine that would supposedly tell you who you would marry, and then the magazine sending you that person," Jeff rambled.

"One, that's sexist. Two, what?" I sat down on the porch.

"I may not know a lot about relationships, but I do know you don't tell people that kind of thing for so many reasons." Jeff explained.

"Yeah, I get why you wouldn't. You really had no idea any of this would happen?" I asked Jeff.

Jeff shook his head. "Of course not. It was a fantasy. But if you want some assurance I won't hurt you, I can't give it, but I can tell you that if there is anything I can do to not hurt you I will."

"You're not lying," I stated. I sat on the porch and considered everything.

"Alright, tell me what we do next. I can barely sustain the spell for ten seconds and you become an intangible wraith on the Other Side. How do we use that?" I straightened. Nothing had changed, after all.

Jeff gave me a tentative, sly smile. "The thing about the show called The Vampire Diaries is that people die a lot, and they do not tend to stay dead." Jeff pulled a flip phone from his pocket. "I think our best bet to start with is a girl who is either about to die or already dead named Vicki Donovan."

[hr][/hr]  
Vicki and Matt Donovan were a pair of teenage siblings who lived alone in a house that Jeff referred to as "TV poor person." Vicki's room contained a stash of pills in her underwear drawer and a Ziploc of pot hidden in one of her shoes. I agreed with Jeff that nothing would form a better link to her than her cellphone.

Jeff anchored when we projected to Vicki under the theory that what could kill me couldn't kill him. I found myself face to face with the girl in a handful of photographs in the Donovan house instantly. Vicki was in the middle of Jeremy Gilbert's room, screaming at the top of her lungs to the unresponsive boy lying on the bed. It was weird seeing one of the Gilberts in their house after living their for nearly a month.

"Vicki?" I asked and she whirled around.

"What the hell happened to me!?" Vicki shouted. I flinched back.

"You died. This is the Other Side, where vampires go when they die," I explained.

"I was only a vampire for two days and I get the vampire afterlife? That sucks." Vicki collapsed on Jeremy's bed, phasing through him without resistance.

"Life sucks and the afterlife sucks just as much," I offered. "I'm here to try and help with that."

"So you're some kind of angel tasked with helping vampires?" Vicki asked skeptically. "I've been through people telling me I needed to find Jesus before."

I laughed. "Nothing like that. I'm a witch, and I'm stuck in my own little purgatory. This is the farthest I can reach." I offered Vicki my hand. "How about you come back with me and we talk about getting me out of there and bringing you back to life?"

Vicki shrugged. "Not like I have anything better to do. I took Vicki's hand and pulled myself back to the Prison World with Vicki along for the ride.

Jeff was lying in a bloody pile, barely conscious when I returned. Vicki looked around curiously. "Hey, this is my house!"

"It was the easiest way to reach you," I explained and knelt down cautiously. Jeff lurched up and Vicki shrieked and leapt back.

"Hi," Jeff said weakly. "I need to um, go." He vanished in a blur of Immortal speed.

"Who the hell is _that_?" Vicki asked.

"My um, companion," I explained. "He's kind of like a vampire and a witch."

"So, witches are real now. Figures." Vicki looked with some disgust at the broken windows, piles of dirt, pockets of water and open candles. "What did you do to my house?"

"It will reset in a little while," I assured her. "When Jeff comes back we will give you some things to look for and people to look up. First, how about we have a real meal? I bet you're starving."

"Am I still a vampire?" Vicki asked.

I paused. "I honestly don't know." I shrugged. "Let's find out."

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

Vicki Donovan chewed on the roast I made as I gave her the run down on six seasons of The Vampire Diaries and two of The Originals.

"...so then the leader of the Travelers, who is a ghost, comes back from the Other Side in a spell that channels a lot of dead Travelers. The spell seemed to allow for more Travelers to come back then had died, including the sacrifices, but I'm not entirely sure how that worked. We know they don't have to kill _themselves_ because later..."

Vicki stopped me with a raised hand. "Be on the look out for creepy European witches; got it. Can we just kill normal witches for that spell?"

I considered. "I really don't know. Travelers have a weird form of magic, but I don't know how weird it is. I know other kinds of witches can cast the spell, but so can a vampire with a Traveler father. I wouldn't want to kill a bunch of witches on the idea we can all find our way back without a lot more information."

Lauren walked into the room, carrying Emily's grimoire and smiling.

"Got it, you've got something more important to say," Vicki kicked back in her chair and looked at Lauren. "What is it?"

"You said there's a comet overhead in Mystic Falls right now?" Lauren asked excitedly. Vicki and I nodded. "Well, earlier I was trying to think of ways to get to the Other Side without practically killing one of us. I think there is a way." Lauren put the book down on a page with a drawing of a crystal and several other notes. "The comet was used for a spell that lasted 145 years already and shows no signs of winding down, right? We might only be able to call on the comet while it's here, but the spell will keep channeling it no matter how far away it goes."

"Yes," I agreed thoughtfully. "But a permanent spell would leave our bodies to decay. and break when the world resets. That is why we can't just use the full moon or something."

"The comet is still overhead in Mystic Falls right now, and almost here in this resetting dimension. I think if we had a focus that stayed active in Mystic Falls and an identical focus here we could call on that power whenever we needed to," Lauren explained. "See this crystal, maybe something like that?"

"Huh." Vicki looked at the grimoire. "I saw a crystal just like that."

My head turned to face her. "Where?"

"Bonnie had it in her Halloween costume. I saw it at the party. She was dressed up as a witch. She's been driving that whole 'psychic' thing into the ground for weeks." Vicki shrugged. "So is that kind of crystal like a witch thing?"

"No..." I muttered, thinking hard. Okay, so I could remember a talisman that Damon tried to steal from Bonnie's neck that roasted his hand for his trouble. That would have been the crystal he got from that party, right? "Lauren, we need to go to the Lockwood Mansion _now_." I got up. "Meet you there." I raced off, my mind racing. Emily destroyed the crystal when she possessed Bonnie to keep Damon from freeing a bunch of starving vampires. If I wanted to use the crystal and the comet I could not have much time.

Lauren and Vicki drove up in Matt's car half an hour later as I tore the Lockwood Mansion apart. "Well this is more fun than the nerd shit," Vicki commented when she found me.

"Join in. We're looking for that crystal. You want to wreck this place anyway, right?" I asked Vicki.

"Sure!" Vicki laughed, then she frowned. "But how do you know that?"

"I'm psychic," I told her, only lying a _little_. "Tyler and his family treat you like crap. Wreck their house for fun looking for that crystal. Got a problem with that?"

"Nope." Vicki smiled and began to look around herself. "Mind explaining why we need this crystal, though?

"Alright. So here is what I remember. Back in 1864, there was a vampire named Katherine Pierce and a witch named Emily Bennett who worked together. Emily was bribed with Katherine's magical blood that she used in spells, but as the kill count mounted with Katherine and her friends feeding on people Emily began to work against Katherine in secret."

"That bitch!" Vicki said playfully as she began to tear apart an expensive sofa with her hands. So she had vampire strength, good but worrying.

"Yeah. So, Katherine was dating Damon and Stefan at the same time. I say 'dating' in the loosest possible sense as she was using mind control on at least one of them and maybe both. After a while the town, thanks to Emily's secret help and local vampires being careless, got enough information and power to fight back. They attacked every vampire in town with the herb 'vervain' and gathered them all into one place for execution."

"Terrible," Vicki laughed. "So Damon's girlfriend died? Serves him right. You know he turned me, right? And Stefan killed me."

"It gets better," I leaned into my audience's sympathies. "Damon and Stefan went to rescue Katherine out of love and mind control, and got shot for their troubles, rising again a few hours later as vampires. Emily, meanwhile, was panicking as she realized that the town wasn't going to stop at vampires now that they knew what was coming, and she expected to be next on the chopping block. Turns out helping in secret while serving a vampire in public wasn't the best survival strategy. Damon, newly risen, went to Emily and begged her to save Katherine. Emily cast a spell on the church to keep the vampires from being burned alive like the town planned, but the barrier that defended them kept them trapped inside the church. In exchange, Damon protected Emily's children from the town when Emily was dragged off to her fate."

"Sounds like a crappy witch to me," Vicki laughed again. This one felt a bit more mean-spirited to me.

"She was skilled, but not good at raw power in the way I am." I shrugged and began to go through another desk. "So in order to undo that barrier the comet has to be in the sky and that crystal has to be used."

"Huh. So you called this a 'prison world.' Does that mean it sucked in a magical crystal?" Vicki asked, sounding a bit confused.

"No, or at least not really. When this spell was done it made a copy of Earth with everything in it but the people and the animals. Magical things have a bit more 'inertia' so to speak and when we move them or break them they stay moved or broken, but everything else resets right back to the way it was when the spell was cast every 24 hours. This happens around 10 PM every night and started a few weeks ago on the ninth."

"Okay. So you want this crystal to cast a spell so you don't writhe on the floor when you go to the Other Side?" Vicki asked.

"Again, not really. So, the problem we have is that the things we have to channel for the spells we could do on this side reset or don't work, such as the sun and the moon, so anything outside of our personal reserves can't last for long. If I bound the power of the sun into a vessel to project to the Other Side that connection would break with the reset. However, if we could make a spell on Earth then it wouldn't break with the reset. This requires a powerful focus to do on Earth, but is possible. The problem is connecting us to a spell on Earth. If we have a powerful focus here, we can make the connection to an active spell done with that focus, and that should make it a lot easier to get to the Other Side." I saw Vicki's eyes begin to glaze over.

Unsurprisingly it was Lauren who found the crystal, safely hidden inside a box in a den or office. The three of us gathered around and looked at it.

"So what do we do with that?" Vicki asked.

"Well I think step one is contacting a very dead, very powerful witch named Emily Bennett," I said. "This was her magical focus, so it has to work better than your cellphone did for finding her spirit.

"Can you anchor again so quickly?" Lauren asked. "It took a lot out of you."

"Probably, but I don't have to do it alone." I looked at Lauren. "We can do it together and send Vicki to make contact with Emily."

"Um..." Lauren frowned. "I mean, are you sure she's as _convincing_ as we are?" I could practically feel the subtext of 'she frequently takes drugs' on Lauren's breath.

"Vicki, here's what you need to tell Emily," I explained. "She needs to check the crypt, or under the church, wherever that is. You should do it too, if you can. Look everywhere for an Elena Gilbert." I paused. "Someone who looks exactly like Elena named Katherine Pierce, that is."

"That helps us how?" Vicki asked, looking confused.

"You see, when Damon and Emily made the deal what they didn't know was that Katherine had already escaped thanks to one of the guards being obsessed with her and being promised that she'd turn him into a vampire. Emily doesn't want to let the vampires out, and Damon won't care in the slightest if Katherine's not in there. She'll owe us one, so possessing Bonnie and casting her part of the spell is how we cash that in." I paused.

"No part of that plan could possibly go wrong," Lauren said dryly.

"Bonnie won't be in danger of murder by Damon when he collects his collateral on a reneged deal. The town doesn't have to risk vampire attacks. Damon doesn't need to waste his time. Emily gets everything she wants." I paused. "Got a better idea right now? I have no idea how much longer we have before the comet leaves or Emily blows up her crystal and stops this from being possible."

Lauren sighed. "Alright then. Do we know where Emily lived, to make this spell easier?"

I paused. "Actually, maybe. So, the old Salvatores had Katherine living with her, and Emily was Katherine's slave or um, free black handmaiden witch who acted like a slave or whatever. We've read the journals, so we can find that place."

Vicki looked like she was practically asleep by now. "Crystal, comet, witch, got it," She muttered when I went quiet. Lauren and I sighed in unison.

"Go find Salvatore manor and call this house," Lauren instructed me, handing me Vicki's phone. "I'll go over everything again with Vicki." I smiled at Vicki's look of horror at the prospect of instruction, and sped off at super speed.


	3. Chapter 3

**First Interlude**

Caroline stormed through the crowd at her party, ignoring the soft music and dull roar of conversation produced by her own party in the Mystic Grill; she wasn't actually sure where she was going, but she felt a need to move.

"Where is it?" Caroline felt the rush of annoyance she typically felt when anyone in her life interrupted her chance to be dramatic. Damon's insistence about the crystal had lead to this mess in the first place.

" _Bonnie_ won't give it to me," Caroline answered, letting out her frustration at her best friend and at her boyfriend's demands at once.

"So rip it off her neck." Damon unleashed his own exasperation on Caroline.

"I tried. It shocked me," Caroline admitted, feeling the rising sense of guilt and confusion that so often accompanied her conversions with Damon.

"Damn it!" Damon looked away from Caroline. "Why does it do that?" He asked rhetorically. "I need that crystal!." Damon hunched down into Caroline's face as he resisted the urge to break her neck.

"Why are you being like this? I am so good to you, and I'd do anything. It's just some stupid necklace." Caroline leaned into Damon, touching his shirt, trying to make sense of her feelings towards the older man and trying to calm him down.

Damon grabbed Caroline's hands firmly and Caroline felt the impending threat. "No. _You_ are the only stupid thing here." Damon turned to go and then wheeled back. "And shallow!" Damon prepared to go one last time, and then thought better of it. "And useless," Damon finished and abandoned the girl.

Caroline stood in the Grill for a minute, surrounded by strangers who she had invited to the party and barely noticing them as they danced and talked or ate and drank. Caroline felt the itch inside her mind, impossible to scratch; she had to get the necklace, or if she couldn't, she would be getting _very_ drunk.

Damon left the bar, fuming. Damon was not a vampire used to his will being defied. Fortunately for Damon, he had another part of his plan that would let him take the edge off his anger. The man stood for moment, watching the residents of Mystic Falls, before spying a pair of young people, a bit drunk and a bit more horny, heading behind the grill to hook up.

More than a century of instinct kicked in as Damon scanned the area for anyone who might be watching. Confident that no one would interrupt him, he took one last look at the couple before he struck. They were young, though Damon couldn't tell if they were in their teens or their twenties, and the girl was giggly, happy. The boy looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered in the world.

Damon could relate.

The vampire began to stalk, moving between shadows faster than the human eye could follow, letting his blood lust rise as the girl heard his movement and the boy ignored the noise to focus on his girlfriend. Damon moved silently and instantly from a shadow to right behind the boy's neck and bit down, draining enough blood to focus with a warm dead body so close and then tossed the dying man aside to focus on the girl. It was time to do to her what he had done to Caroline.

[hr][/hr]

Lexi and Stefan danced with the ease of a friendship that had lasted lifetimes. Damon sat in his booth and watched them, hating every minute of the night and only able to withstand it due to the fresh murder filling his belly with human blood.

Damon felt a thrill of anticipation in his mouth, as if it was phantom blood in the air, at the prospect of Lexi's death. The town knew a vampire was in Mystic Falls, and he had made sure the girl remembered the small blonde Damon had a picture of in his camera phone as the creature that had killed her boyfriend,

Damon, Stefan and Lexi were the inhumans with superhuman hearing in the room, but each of them was occupied enough that it was Elena who first noticed the commotion around the bathroom.

"Bonnie! Bonnie! Open the door this instant!" Caroline shouted, desperate. Elena began to make her way across the room, and then Damon heard the shouting across the noisy room and focused his attention on the cheerleader pounding on the outside wall of the bathroom. Damon only felt a cold disgust with Caroline for failing at the mission he had programmed into her head. A moment later Lexi noticed Elena's movement, looked around, and realized something was wrong. Stefan followed Lexi's lead and prepared for action.

"Aww man." Damon sighed and made his way towards the girl's room. "Just go," He ordered Caroline, who scurried off like a mouse. "Of all the times for the little witch to find some balls," He muttered, hoping that this wouldn't ruin his attack on Lexi.

"Damon, what did you do?" Lexi pinned Damon to the wall, confident from more than three centuries of living death that the crowd was drunk and loud enough not to believe it if they saw her vanish or re-appear. Elena tensed up several feet away, stunned by vampire speed that she was growing to expect.

"Nothing! It's Bonnie," Damon choked out through Lexi's superior strength. "Witch in the bathroom is freaking out." Lexi gave the younger vampire a death glare and let him go. Stefan began to work to clear out the room in the face of an apathetic and resistant party.

Bonnie walked out of the bathroom, her eyes already fixed on Damon, who slouched against the wall with an artful swagger. Lexi looked from the witch to the confident vampire with confusion.

It was Stefan who spoke next, quietly. "Hello, Emily," He said evenly.

She turned to Stefan. "Get her out of here. She's not safe." Emily pointed to Lexi.

Damon frowned in anger. "Alright, you've had your fun. A deal's a deal, Emily." Damon smiled at Bonnie's face. "Can I have my crystal, now?"

"We need to talk, Damon." Emily said and all three vampires felt a rise in their blood lust in response to the defiance.

"Emily, no backsies now. Without me that little gran-witch you're riding wouldn't even be here." Damon felt his confidence rise; Emily had not been able to scare him for a _very_ long time.

A handful of people made their ways towards the exit or the street, but for the most part no one was paying attention by now. It was just enough for the sheriff's department to prepare for the worst when they pulled up and saw the scene, Damon's victim with them and ready to carry out his plan to the letter.

"She's not in the tomb, Damon." Emily told said aloud.

Damon winced. "What did you just say to me?"

"Who isn't in the tomb?" Stefan asked.

"What tomb?" Lexi asked.

"I checked, Damon. For 145 years I thought she was there. I checked to make sure tonight. There are 26 vampires in the tomb underneath Fell's Church. Katherine escaped."

"Oh hell no," Lexi said. "Really?"

Damon looked around the room while Stefan began badgering Emily for details on her life altering pronouncements. Lexi moved towards Elena to try and fill in the missing pieces in her own perspective. Damon saw a couple dancing, entirely ignoring the motion towards the doors and blasted across the room with incredible speed and sank his teeth into a girl's throat.

"DAMON!" Emily used Bonnie's telekinetic power to bring Damon to the floor, inches from the dying girl.

"You couldn't have told me this 130 years ago!" Damon screamed. "You never thought to check until _now_?"

The police entered the room with guns out and Damon struggled to leave, but Emily's telekinetic vice kept the vampire pinned to the floor.

"I'm sorry, Damon," Emily said. " _Incidndia!"_ Flame exploded in a wall between Damon and the human police and civilians.

"Emily, please," Damon choked out, not really knowing what he was even asking for.

"Augustine," Emily said.

Damon looked up in shock. "What?"

"There is a man who knows impossible things. He said that you would know what this meant; 'he's alive. Augustine is still active.' He says you'd owe him one if I told you that."

"No way," Damon said. "Were you _there_ as some freaky witch ghost?"

"No, Damon. I only saw you when you came back to Mystic Falls. The same voice that told me about Katherine told me you would understand this." Bonnie's face stayed in the somewhat vacant expression of a ghost who had forgotten most of being human.

"Aw hell," Damon sighed. "I've got bigger fish to fry, now. Hey Lexi, they think you did it!" Damon shouted. "Stefan, there's a dead guy out back. Elena, see ya'." Damon paused."Hey." He threw one of the deputies a the stake Damon had hidden in his jacket in case he had a chance to kill Lexi himself. "Have fun you guys."

Damon exploded through the window in a burst of speed as a fight commenced.  
[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

Emily Bennett refused to come to the Prison World so our negotiations were through proxie. Vicki Donovan was hardly the choice diplomat, but I had no reason to _distrust_ her. Time flew by in here, and it had been longer than I thought, closer to two months than one before we had gotten Vicki. Each day bled into the next.

According to Emily, or Vicki's claims about Emily, she needed to wait for Bonnie to wear her talisman to possess her descendant. Without seeing Emily's face I felt uneasy with the deal, but Vicki seemed fairly confident that Emily had agreed to help us since we had helped her. With nothing to do but wait on Emily and with Lauren distant I was left largely to my own devices.

I had given myself access to magic in the jumpchain. I had become a very powerful witch, perhaps among the five most powerful I was sure actually existed in the setting, if less experienced than any of the others. Soon I began to study my powers systematically.

Telekinesis was easy, it didn't require too much mystical energy and it was precise. Snap a blood vessel or ten in a brain and a human would die. Snap a neck and most inhumans would be incapacitated for a while if they survived. Throw enough trauma into a body and anything short of an Original would usually be dead. While we waited on Emily I resolved to explore our telekinetic skills for those reasons. Lauren agreed that we would practice that the next day.

I practiced and studied my telekinesis with renewed vigor, eager to impress Lauren. Witch telekinesis bled heavily into hydrokinesis and aerokinesis. In so far as I could tell there was no mystical pressure that was specifically created by magic. When I summoned a book from a shelf the invocation would include a gust of air, but also guide the book's mass in a way that felt more distinct than manipulating air pressure could manage. Manipulating water also seemed to be tied into telekinetic manipulation of any fluid, including blood. My impression was that I wrote an "end" into the world and nature worked to provide a "means." The means were not perfectly consistent, even if there were patterns.

I had never quite before understood the narrative trope of science and magic being opposed, but using witchcraft I started to understand where the idea came from. To be specific, magic was not like my understanding of _engineering_ and it required a quite different mindset. An engineer would work with math and materials, constructing a means piece by piece. As I understood it, every human object I knew of was built under roughly that principle, even if there were often gaps in our underlying understanding of why certain objects did what they did.

I would not have called magic a "living thing" or a "holistic system;" I didn't think I understood magic well enough to box it in like that. Some parts of casting spells felt _social_. Without knowing the system magic used to answer my desires, I trusted a distinct process to arrive in the direction I asked. Using magic was in that regard a lot like working with a human.

The second principle of magic that I articulated to myself was that I needed to ensure that a sufficient supply of energy was appropriated in order to do what I wanted. Energy from within myself was the easiest source, but it was inherently limited. I could do a lot with personal reserves of magic, but it was on the same _order_ of things as I could do with my body; manipulating the physical world to achieve a specific result I could articulate in simple terms.

Shepherding additional sources of magic allowed for things different in kind. Projection involved putting myself in tune with nature and letting it take care of my body while I separated myself from it. The sun and the moon could be called on to cause transformations of mind and body, with the sun granting permanency and the moon granting control. Sacrifice of human or animal life could let me enhance my own attributes to finite yet significant heights.

I would not say that this was a complete or unified theory of magic. There were endless caveats in the grimoires I read, specific incantations that impacted the effectiveness of a spell with identical energy and strong rafts of mystical intuition or senses that I did not understand, but I had definitely found a start to such a unified theory of magic. When I met Lauren I had learned enough that I had a plan in place for combat practice.

The truth is that I couldn't learn self defense without a training partner, at least not according to my internet searches on the subject. This was bad because my only viable training partner was Lauren. I could take anything Lauren could dish out, but she couldn't take a hit like I could, so there wasn't much point to training for a real fight.

I settled on training to throw wooden stakes with telekinesis, trying to hit the heart of a cardboard cutout. This was nowhere close to optimal, but it gave me a little bit of confidence if I had to fight a vampire.

Serving as a practice dummy for Lauren was surprisingly fun. A stake through the heart didn't do anything to bring me down, and I got to make life difficult for her with my super speed. I wielded a red marker to draw lines on her skin in some of our training exercises, each time I made contact serving as a point where a vampire would have killed her.

"Damn it Jeff, stay still!" Lauren shouted after a particularly long session where the two of us were in the woods outside Mystic Falls.

"Vampires are faster than I am," I reminded her. "They won't be staying still."

"What's the point of this, then? If I can't ever hit you what am I learning?" Lauren asked with exasperation.

"You can hit me," I assured her. "I know where I am going, but it isn't like the world slows down, it's more like I am strapped to a rocket. I need to stop to think. If you can figure out how to predict my movements you might have a defense against a vampire."

"Hell, stop making sense," Lauren glowered. "How does that speed even work, anyway?"

"Honestly I have a load of technobabble ideas and absolutely no evidence," I said seriously. "My body acts like it is a lot lighter when I tap into Immortal speed. I need to visualize where I am going instead of acting like I am walking, too. I want to say it's based on phasing into another dimension a bit or something, but that's compete guesswork."

"The lightness would explain how vampires jump so far and fast, too." Lauren said thoughtfully. "You know I really expected to tag you if I got you talking."

"So did I," I admitted. "Time out." I appeared in front of her and watched Lauren seriously consider tagging me with a stake despite my "time out" invocation. "It was a good idea, but I think you actually do need more training."

"That's unfortunate." Lauren sighed and let the stake drop. "I'm good with the blood vessel spell. I don't get why this is more difficult. Are you sure that sufficiently strong vampires can resist it?"

"Maybe not ignore it, but definitely resist the spell, yeah. I don't know if it's from durability, faster healing, or just ignoring the pain, but sufficiently old vampires can snap a neck by hand even with a witch trying to pulp their brain. The neck snap might be more reliable, but I don't know if I can count on that if the vampire is old and dangerous enough."

"I understand," Lauren admitted. "It's just frustrating. I never expected to fight vampires before."

Neither of us really understood if there was a canon or discipline of "combat magic" specifically. If we could get our way back to Lauren's Earth and we got tied into the plot of The Vampire Diaries we would be dealing with evil witches, vampires, werewolves, Immortals, Originals, and god only knew what would surface in season seven or eight. Figuring out self defense was key. If I recalled correctly there were respawn rules in jumpchain for companions, but betting Lauren's life on a 'maybe' was not a habit I wanted to get into.

[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**

"So you're like a super-witch, right?" Vicki asked. The easiest way to get her to stay still was to feed her, so I had prepared TV dinner that claimed to be lasagna for her arrival.

"There's better, but not many." I hedged cautiously. "According to Jeff there are none with more potential, but there are definitely witches with a lot of power and a lot more experience than I have."

"How does Jeff get to be psychic and know all this stuff anyway?" Vicki asked with her mouth full.

I considered my response. "He says that a lot of things are in his head as if it was a story, a book he read or a TV show he watched. So far he's been very accurate about the things he was confident about and had great instincts for what was useful or important. So far he's been right way too often to ignore."

"Alright. Why are you so strong?" Vicki inhaled her food at an amazing speed.

"Well, my parents were special. My coven's bloodline was a kind of heresy, a Romeo and Juliet story about seventy years ago produced my mother's family and my father was one of the most skilled and dangerous witches in the coven. You might think of the middle ranks of witchcraft as people who are either weak but very skilled or talented but less skilled, while I am a freak of nature who is very skilled and very talented."

"So like, you're Michael Jordan of witchcraft?" Vicki asked.

I nodded. "More like if Andre the Giant had a black belt."

"No idea who that is, but sure." Vicki had finished her TV dinner and looked disappointed at the lack of food. "So what exactly can you do to bring me back to life?"

"There's a few ways," I began. "It might be possible to just 'push' you through the Other Side into the real world with enough energy. I don't have enough energy now, but there are ways to gather it or I could wait for a time when that energy is freely available; like an eclipse or a miraculous birth. There is also putting you inside someone else's body, which is easy but obviously not my first choice unless we happen to find a fresh intact corpse you'd be fine with."

"Huh, so you can just bring back a corpse if it's fresh enough? Neat." Vicki laughed.

"Fresh enough and not too badly damaged, sure. Anyone can do that, like restarting a stopped heart or something. If you can preserve a corpse with magic you could even do it years later. The longer it decays the harder it gets of course, and after a couple days it takes as much energy to restore the corpse as it would to push someone back to life through the Other Side."

"Makes sense," Vicki had begun to look in the refrigerator. "Why does any witch stay dead, then?"

"Most witches aren't me, and to do something like that takes a lot more energy than most witches have. Channeling that much energy from nature tends to go badly; nature doesn't like bringing back the dead. It is really easy to kill yourself instead of bringing someone back, or kill yourself managing to bring someone back. Just about every surviving coven treats bringing back the dead as a sin or crime because those that didn't burned themselves out trying to sustain themselves. The last time a major group made a good run at conquering death they got a curse so bad their descendants are still hurting from it two thousand years later."

"Harsh," Vicki bent over and began to explore the bottom shelf. "But you can bring me back for helping you, right?"

" _I_ can." I smiled. And if I couldn't, well, I didn't have to cross her until _after_ I was out of the Prison World.

[hr][/hr]  
**Wyld**

The destruction Lauren had unleashed on the excuse of "combat practice" had left downtown Mystic Falls a burning mess and it was awesome to pick over the ruins. I needed _something_ to do before I ripped myself apart again to float Lauren to the Other Side. It would be another twelve hours before we had Vicki check on Emily again.

I let out a stream of blue fire in frustration. Intellectually I knew Damon had been killing people all this time, people more innocent than Lexi, but I could put a face to Lexi, remember a cheerful blond vampire of epic niceness and badassatude and her survival was down to _Emily Bennett_ of all people.

"Having a bad time?" Lauren asked. I turned around, surprised I missed her showing up.

"I'm disappointed," I explained. "I hoped we'd have a straight shot and be able to stop all the _shit_ this show would give us but of course we have to deal with all their petty stupidity first." I sighed. "Odds that Emily isn't screwing with us?"

"I have no idea," Lauren admitted. "Crazy bitch tries to be a good person I think, but honestly we have to look pretty shady to her."

"We? I'm the blood eater. What's her problem with you?" I asked, sincerely curious.

"Jeff, you said you filled out two distinct special powers on top of my being a super witch. Do you think that comes for free?" Lauren sighed. "You said I had Magic Resistance and Siphoner?"

"So what, Emily's prejudiced against those things?" I asked.

"Witches are all about balance, and I'm almost as unbalanced as _you_. I don't like it, but I can understand that I look scary to her and that she's been burned before; literally."

"Does 'balance' ever mean anything _good_ or does it just mean people can't do awesome things?" I asked bitterly.

"Huh." Lauren looked thoughtful. "For me, it means being aware of prices that you have to pay anyway. Everything has consequences, even if they aren't symmetrical ones. Get a boyfriend and someone else doesn't, do well at your job and someone loses theirs because they can't compete, snap at someone and teach someone else a lesson that sticks with them forever. If we could just get everything we wanted out of nature without consequence then I think we'd be in a better world, but nature _is_ finite and I don't think backlash is just there to make witches keep their heads down."

"You're being very reasonable." I frowned. "What's wrong?"

"We've promised Vicki we're bringing her back to life. My parents are dead unless I am lucky beyond all reason. The number of people we owe _serious_ favors to is just going to keep growing. There's going to be a price for that, won't there?"

"Yeah." I sighed. "I just have to hope we aren't the ones who pay it."

[hr][/hr]  
We summoned Vicki back from the Other Side an hour before Emily's appointment. Vicki looked positively bubbly.

"So, did you actually ask Emily to burn down the Grill?" Vicki asked. I just stared. "I'll take that as a no. So, you want the deetes. First, Caroline was throwing Stefan a birthday party with his new girlfriend for some reason and then Caroline and Bonnie had this stupid fight. After that Bonnie went all zombie so Emily was possessing her. She had a short talk with Damon and then Damon went full vampire on some rando. Stefan and his new girlfriend rushed in and ran around a lot and Bonnie exploded a bunch of liquor bottles into fire. Then the sheriff's department charged in and Bonnie shouted some freaky shit at them and I think she cursed one to death and then Bonnie fell over asleep."

Lauren and I sat there, stunned.

"So..." Lauren started.

"Oh, I think the spell's done, though didn't you say you'd need to talk to her to tap into i?" Vicki shrugged. "So we won, right? Ooh, what's that I'm smelling? Vicki walked into the kitchen and began to squeal at the sight of the homemade hamburgers I had prepared.

Once Vicki had a taste of food she was far more willing to explain Emily's demands.

"So, Emily wants to meet you in person first," Vicki gestured at me. "She really wants to do some kind of check on the magical psychic man who knows way too much. I kind of don't blame her.

I sighed and looked at Lauren. "Once more, into the breach?" She nodded. The dangers of Lauren anchoring my Projection were obvious, but I doubted that refusing would be likely to go over well with Emily.

"Vicki!" Lauren called. "Vamp healing blood needed ASAP."

"I'm a ghost, does that still work?" Vicki asked.

"Let's hope so, unless you think Emily will take 'no, give us the spell anyway' as an answer." I took Lauren's hand, unsure if it was to comfort her or to prepare to be anchored. "Ready?"

"Ready," She nodded, a grim look on her face, and I projected myself into the Other Side. Lauren wanted out as badly as I did.

"You were right. You were right about everything." Emily's face was haunted, which helped distract from the fact that her actress had also played Kendra on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"Hurry! Lauren can't hold this for long," I told Emily.

"She will be fine." Emily looked at me. "Damon would have killed my family without your help. Thank you."

I went over season one in my head. "Actually no, he'd just have gotten pretty close and turned Bonnie's mom into a vampire. Please tell me what we need to do so we can have a real conversation?"

Emily raised her hand. " _Hunc exitus ab auribos_." Emily was silent for painful seconds before looking relieved.

"So, trust that I'm not the Antichrist or something?" I asked, and Emily smiled.

" _Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, Confremun Signas. Omus Quisa Tentum Exalis._ " Emily whispered. "That's the incantation." I returned to the Prison World to find Vicki _chowing down_ on Lauren.

"Oh for fuck's sake." I severed Vicki's hand with a burst of telekinetic rage and grabbed her bodily, taking the two of us away from Lauren's blood. Hopefully the hand had enough blood and Lauren enough consciousness to recover. I found my mouth on Vicki's stump a second later as the young vampire unleashed a primal scream and began to beat me senseless. Even her baby vampire strength was superior to mine, and in my bloodlust I lacked the focus to apply magic, so Vicki won the fight in moments before collecting herself and speeding off.

When I regained my senses a few minutes later, staring at a burning building, I decided that things had gone better than I had expected.

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

I scrubbed myself for what felt like hours under hot water until I felt confident that I was clean enough from the smell of blood not to trigger Jeff or Vicki. I was sore and exhausted and burned out and just wanted to go to bed.

I didn't know who owned the house I slept in that night, as I left the Gilbert house's bloody mess to clean itself when the world reset. Jeff was waiting downstairs when I woke up, looking with some confusion at some eggs he had completely destroyed.

"Are you alright?" I asked him. He looked around.

"I should be asking you that," He answered. "You've had that happen twice now."

"I've bled around neophyte blood drinkers twice," I shrugged. "How is Vicki?"

"She's still here unless the summoning spell went wonky in the reset," Jeff shrugged. "I hurt her pretty badly when we fought."

"You didn't attack me this time," I pointed out. "You're making progress."

"I was mad at Vicki," He shrugged. "Don't give me too much credit, I chowed down on _her_ this time."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I'll still call that progress."

Jeff smiled ruefully. "You know, I can't remember the last time I was in a fight before that? I mean literally. I'm sure I had fights when I was a little kid, but I don't even remember any. I was always a scared, docile child. This doesn't feel like _me_. I'm sorry about everything."

I considered my response. "Worst case, you didn't kill my parents or try to possess me and do horrors in my name. Anyone who isn't at that level is worth working with." I looked in the fridge and then the freezer. "I feel like waffles."

[hr][/hr]

Damon was in a car speeding dangerously and singing along to obnoxiously loud rock and roll when I first checked in on him when I explored the Other Side. I couldn't find anything of Lexi's to make a connection with her, but Stefan didn't look murderous or suicidal when I found him at school so I guessed she made it out alright.

Emily followed me as I explored the Other Side. "You know I cried every day for the first twenty years after I died," She told me "I couldn't imagine a worse place then this, and for you this is freedom."

"I don't have to stay here," I pointed out. "Options are great. For me it's at least a step in the right direction."

"Sheila summoned me," Emily explained. "I told her everything I knew about you and your companion. Bonnie deserved to know after I used her."

"I understand," I answered. "It's alright. What does a ghost like you do most of the time, anyway?"

"I watch things, and go places. I can talk to my children or ancestors, sometimes. There is a lot to see as the world changes. Most witches have found peace by now. I think I might be able to do that, now." Emily sounded thoughtful. "I never could stop regretting what I did for Katherine while she killed the innocent." Emily walked from Stefan to Elena, who was in the same class. "You have no idea what she was like."

"Cruel and selfish, I imagine. Very charming and could make you feel special, right?" I remembered from the journals of the Founding Families.

"I had never known a woman could be like her in real life," Emily answered. "My witch side of the family was never enslaved, but we were always moving, fearful. I was just a child when I met Katherine, shortly after my mother died. She protected me, helped teach me magic from my mother's grimoire. She was like an angel, always pushing me to be my best. She was always honest with me, too. She told me everything she wanted me to do. I let her walk in the sun and I worked on doing so much more."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Every gift the vampires gained had a curse along with it. Any of them could be protected against. Katherine wanted to enter houses uninvited, compel through vervain, stop feeding on blood. She was searching for something that she could trade to Klaus to stop him hunting her." Emily stared at Elena.

"Did you find a cure for the blood lust?" I asked cautiously.

"No," She answered. "Nothing besides a stake through the heart."

The bell rung and Elena got up, moving towards Stefan. I followed them in the hopes of hearing more about their reactions. Clearly things had not gone so badly that Stefan had to leave town, yet.

"What is it like, seeing a girl who looks like Katherine?" I asked.

Emily laughed. "Katherine was much prettier."  
[hr][/hr]  
I found Vicki hiding in the Prison World analogue of Maryland.

"Sorry about the hand," I offered as conciliation. She had a smooth stump where the hand used to be. "I am about 70% sure your hand will be there when you return to the Other Side."

"You know I wasn't going to go back there, right?" Vicki asked, looking up from bag of convenience store donuts she was eating. "I helped you guys out, and this place is better than the Other Side for me. What's the point of sending me back there?"

"Well, someone to help keep an eye on things in Mystic Falls might be useful, but point taken." I shrugged. "You'd probably want to hang around with us while we try to get our way back to Earth."

"Oh, so it's 'us' now?" Vicki looked amused. "So you've become the kind of couple already?"

I sat down next to Vicki and considered. "For now, let's just say we're on the same lifeboat. Two people shipwreck on a desert island together and their whole lives are about each other, and I don't think _we_ want that." I shrugged.

"So you're saying he's open for business?" Vicki flashed her vampire smile and I felt a flash of _something_.

"You don't want that," I hedged carefully.

"You should meet my exes." Vicki laughed. "He's the only boy I can actually touch, and you're saying you aren't _together_."

I took a deep breath. Vicki was just taunting me. "What do you want me to do, stake a claim on him? You know he'd probably go along with it if I asked for something in writing, right?"

Vicki looked smug. "So you do like him." She rolled around a bit and looked up at me. "So, you think you can get my hand back?"

"You know, someone who severed your hand should _not_ be on your list of dating options," I pointed out.

"I'm a vampire, remember? Jeff brought me to that weird bondage basement to try and prove Tyler's family are a bunch of werewolves and I still don't get what he thinks is up with the Gilberts." Vicki rolled her eyes. "If he's going to wreck all my old relationships you'd think he'd have the decency to man up."

"I don't think he's wired that way. Anyway, there's lots of nice vampire boys for you to date." I paused. "There's lots of vampire boys for you to date," I corrected myself.

"Very encouraging. I could just find a boy I like, get him all charged up on vampire blood and then..." Vicki made a "snapping" motion with her hands. "So I guess once I get home I'll be fine."

"...yeah." I wondered again if bringing Vicki back from the dead was actually a good idea.


	4. Chapter 4

**Wyld**

I stalked Logan Fell through the Other Side, watching him kill the morbidly obese woman he had abducted from a truck stop. I pressed my mind, trying to reach out from the Other Side with psychic power, and found myself incapable of it. Witches could cast spells from the Other Side that would work on Earth, but so far I had yet to figure out how it worked without some kind of anchor. Maybe there was no way to do it without an anchor on Earth, and it was just that some were hidden or natural when I had seen witches cast spells from here? Either way this woman was doomed.

A photograph in his sister's house had let me create a mystical link to Logan. This was enough to reach the area of the Other Side corresponding to him, but not enough to do anything about the serial killer vampire. One of the town's anti-vampire defenders turning into a vampire and going Ripper was an issue from the show I had almost entirely forgotten about and the result of several feuding vampires who didn't speak to each other, but mostly I blamed Damon as he was partially at fault and blaming Damon was easy.

I had to turn away from Logan, not because I was horrified watching a woman die, but because it looked so appetizing. I sighed into the purgatory I had reached.

Jeff's dad was in his trailer, not having realized his ex-wife and son were gone. Jeff's mother was still in a morgue as Jane Doe and if her ghost wandered the Other Side I had yet to find it. Either the memories from Jeff's life were subdued compared to Wyld's or I my emotions were more blunted from my Immortal template than I had thought.

Esther had made it look so easy to manipulate and be the Big Bad from the Other Side. Hopefully I could bypass the thousand years Esther spent in purgatory hiding from vampires.

"Good evening." I flinched and whirled around as an unfamiliar voice came from behind me. I looked at the young man with an impressive beard and what I thought was a European accent and considered my new move.

"You here for Logan or can you see me?" I asked.

The man chuckled. "The leech is of no interest to me." To me surprise Logan did look up.

"What the hell?" Logan asked.

"Please get rid of that scum on general principles." I pointed at Logan, and the stranger smiled and spoke an incantation I was unfamiliar with, leading to the young vampire collapsing on the spot.

"And I laughed when my grandmother always told me to carry a stake," The man said as he walked over to Logan and brought what looked to me like a short spear into his chest. "Are these things common around here?"

"More common than anywhere else in Virginia. There's a whole kingdom of the biters in New Orleans if you have an army." I explained.

The man laughed again. "Hardly; I have yet to introduce myself, call me Mark."

"I would offer you my hand, but..." I passed my hand through a tree.

"Understandable." Mark nodded. "May I ask what you are?"

"I'm a psychic," I "explained" to Mark. "Currently I am kind of stuck. Mind explaining how you can see me and why you are here?"

"You could say I felt a great disturbance in the Force," Mark smiled. "Something mysterious and mystical happened here and I was asked to look around."

"Hm, I am guessing Gemini Coven." Mark frowned. "I'll take that as a no."

"I am hardly a _witch._ " Mark made it sound like a curse. "I am a Traveler."

"Ah. So you're a magic user, cursed to walk the Earth and never settle down, right?" I asked.

Mark nodded. "I am gifted, yes. You call yourself a psychic?"

"Yes. I admit that I haven't had powers for long. I see things in my head like a story. So far what I see is quite accurate, but I can't trigger visions to find out what I want to know, I simply have to take what I am given. I am _guessing_ that I am what you 'detected' but since this is Mystic Falls I could very well be mistaken."

"You trust easily," Mark smiled. "That can be a dangerous thing."

"As I said, my body is currently stuck. You are the first person who can see me. If you are here to kill me then you'd need to get to me first, which might increase my odds." I shrugged.

"Trapped, you say? The Old Ones felt a great movement happen in this town. Perhaps it was when you were cursed? A spell like that without an explanation could not be good."

"Movement?" I asked. "I don't follow."

"Huh. You must be quite young. Something happened without balance, the kind of event that can be used to cast a grand spell or curse until it is answered. Perhaps the awakening of a psychic to his powers? This is speculation, but this seems unlikely to be a coincidence that I find a strange spirit so close to the event."

"So you can tell I'm not a normal vampire or something? Do you mind if I ask how?" Mark looked at me like I was an idiot. "Never mind. So are you here to use this great imbalance, or correct it, or what?"

"Mostly I am here to make sure no _witches_ use it. The filthy creatures have hunted my people for generations and it is just their style to use something like this against us."

"So, you don't like witches." I paused. "So you know what the Gemini Coven is, right? Have you heard of their power to make magical prisons?"

Mark looked up, inquisitively. "I have _heard_ of that. When you say you are trapped, is that what you mean?"

I considered and took a gamble. "Yes, it is. If, hypothetically, you had someone powerful and stuck in a prison made by your enemies, would it be of use to you to get that person out of the prison to frustrate a common foe?"

"The so-called Gemini Coven is powerful and we have lost good men to them. Are you asking me to pick a fight with such a power?" Mark looked at me, his eyes unreadable.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they work very hard to make sure you do not break a particularly vile curse on your people? That sounds like you are already at war."

"Kai, is it?" The Traveler frowned. "There are stories about you."

"No, I'm new," I answered. "I am not a Siphoner, I am a psychic." I paused. "Now, tell me if I'm wrong, but your plan involves doppelganger blood, right?"

Mark frowned. "What?"

"As I said, I see things in a story laid out in my head. Let me tell you a piece of that story. Long ago there was a witch named Silas and a witch named Qetsiyah. Silas seduced Qetsiyah and talked her into making a potion that contained immortality so they could be together forever. When she made the potion he took all of it and gave Qetsiyah's half to his true love, Amara. Ever since they have lived, if not happily, and doppelgangers have been born to die in their place. Travelers want to use those doppelgangers to break their curse, right?"

Mark sat on the ground, looking fairly stunned. "How could you, not exactly, but..." He trailed off.

"I know their names," I offered.

Mark looked at me. " _What_?"

"I promise you that I know the names of the four doppelgangers who currently exist." I paused. "Three full names, and the first name of the other. Talk to your boss on the Other Side, okay?"

"You, you captured one of us!" Mark shouted. I sighed. "You must have used some spell to get everything. You, this has to be a trick!"

"No, Mark. I don't know everything, but I _do_ know a lot and I _am_ a psychic. If we work together I can tell you about many, many things. I know where, for example, wood from a White Oak Tree that can kill an Original is located. I know the moment of vulnerability coming to the New Orleans Coven during the Harvest. I want to speak to your boss, Mark, because I think we can _really_ help each other."

[hr][/hr]  
"You made a deal with the _Travelers_?" Lauren shouted.

"I planted the seed of one. What, exactly, is your problem with that?"

"You made a deal with body stealing savages with magical powers without asking me and you're asking me what my _deal_ is?" Lauren shook her head, causing an impressive length of blond hair to shake. "Obviously them being evil and dangerous."

"I'm an Immortal and you're a Siphoner. Do we really work with witch prejudices, here?" I thought I was being reasonable.

" _Travelers_ are baby stealing, blood sacrificing cultists. They're criminals and scoundrels. You have to trust me on this, I've grown up hearing stories about them my whole life." Lauren ranted.

"Witches and Travelers have been fighting for two thousand years. I assume there's prejudice on both sides."

"I've heard worse about Travelers than about _vampires_ , Jeffry! Do they even know we're witches? They hate real magic!"

"Lauren, a question, why do they steal babies?" I asked.

Lauren frowned. "What?"

"Well, from the sound of it they would be stealing witch babies, right? That absolutely makes sense if you want to use witch magic to try and break the curse. If you are doing that, then you're committing to raising a group of people for many years and assuming they will like you enough to help you. Now, I'm not saying child abduction is _okay_ , but..."

"Jeff, the story is they steal babies to _sacrifice them_ for dark magic." Lauren answered.

"If they hate all kinds of magic that aren't theirs, why would they be fine with super dark sacrificial magic? If they turn out to be as bad as you say we can go to war with them after we use them to bust out, okay?"

"I, oh come on! Why are you being like this?"

"Lauren, my plan A was to work with _The Originals_. You know, the first ever vampires? Thousand year old mass murdering immortals full of paranoia and blood lust. We don't have very long to get out if any of what I know about my 'drawbacks' from jumpchain is true."

"I can't believe you want me to consider this. You say you know the Originals backwards and forwards. I can trust you to know how _they_ tick. Travelers, I know that they're a bunch of scorpions, and can only trust them to do their best to screw us over."

"Can they screw us over worse than being stuck behind two walls of magical purgatory forever?" I asked.

"Of course they can! They could sell our souls to whatever devil you think is real and get us tortured forever, off the top of my head. They could be working with the Coven of the Thirteen and sell them my body for whatever it is they want!"

"If they're working with the Coven of the Thirteen then they are happy to work with witches, and from what you've said they are full of irrational hatred towards all witches, right? So they won't work with your enemies even if they plan on betraying us." I felt I was being quite reasonable.

Lauren sighed and sat down. "Alright, you work on that scheme by yourself and let me know when I can go 'I told you so.' I will work on something that will actually work." Lauren scowled. "Deal?"

"Deal," I agreed easily.

[hr][/hr]

Sweat covered my body as Vicki flipped me onto the ground with a decisive thud. "This rocks!" Vicki shouted happily. "Need a minute big guy?"

I scowled. "Nope." I lunged forward at the speed I would identify as a "blur" on the show. The world fell out of focus for me as I felt a lightness in my chest and legs. It felt like I was being tugged through water as I rocketed towards Vicki. A moment later I dug myself out from a wall as Vicki laughed.

"Great move, dude." Vicki snorted.

"How do you _do_ that?" I asked. "Dodge at speed I mean?"

Vicki looked thoughtfully for the moment before I blurred again and found my stomach impaled on a stake. "You gotta focus, man. Just try to breathe when you do into the speed mode. Everything's ten times as intense normal vamp mode when it's all a blur but you have to figure out how to breathe anyway. You just have to find control I guess."

"Yes sensei," I muttered.

Vicki laughed at me. "You were turned _before me_. Man you gotta figure this out before you get out of here or you are going to look so bad in front of all the cool vampires."

"So just Lexi," I acknowledged.

Vicki nodded and I found my hand pinned to another wall by another stake Vicki had hidden on her person. "Seriously, aren't you supposed to be a rockin' super vampire?"

"Actually I'm a lot weaker than you are on the strength and speed front. It's just..." I found my other hand pinned to the wall. "You know I could totally set you on fire with my mind, right?" I asked.

"Oh, not a thing you have ever discussed six or seven times or worked on a chalk board to illustrate to your girlfriend." Vicki rolled her eyes. "It's not like you've gone 'oh Lauren, my ball-buster-in-chief, there are scary ancient vampires who don't burn with necks as strong as steel and giant granite cocks who were scary hot vikings who totally make out in my head. Oh Lauren we must train in case my list of geek superpowers somehow fail against these manly men.' Did I get it right?" Vicki glared at me.

"I'm sorry. I lash out when I'm in pain," I admitted. "My bad." I pushed the bits of wood out of my body with a burst of telekinesis. "If the trick really is in meditation or breath exercise then I should probably go and do that instead of this for a while."

"I'm bored," Vicki pouted.

"I could send you to stalk Jeremy and his new vampire stalker chick," I offered.

Vicki frowned. "I'll go find something to do," Vicki sighed. "Maybe Lauren's up for something." Vicki vanished in a rush of air. I sighed and did the same, heading to the Gilbert house to try meditating on my undying breath.

[hr][/hr]

Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert were on a road trip to follow a trail of bodies Damon was apparently leaving elsewhere in Virginia. Why, besides being Damon, he was leaving a trail of bodies was unclear and apparently not actually that characteristic for this particular sociopath vampire; part of the reason he'd survived this long was a willingness and ability to cover his tracks.

Sitting in the "back seat" of their car I marveled again at the impossibility of the scenario. My window to seeing Elena and Stefan was a carefully constructed illusion made of cameras, editors, set designers and actors. How had Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley been used to make a connection between my home world and the one inhabited by Elena and Stefan? I could _smell_ Elena's perfume (though how _did_ that work in the Other Side) even though I couldn't imagine Nina could have _smelled_ like Elena through multiple takes and stage lights and makeup that the doppelganger didn't need.

I remembered reading that child stars often had acne issues that were covered up by makeup. Elena's skin had to be _different_ from Nina's in order for Elena to look like she did coming out of bed when Nina would need a makeup department. Was it all a matter of probability, or was Elena's skin different right down to the genes and the pores?

"...Lexi says the heads are ripped off," Elena reported from a text message. "Why would Damon _do_ that?"

"A vampire who loses control, loses _all_ control, they will sometimes just not be able to get enough. They never get _all_ of the blood from a body. They can still smell it, and it's right there, so they start to dig in. Sometimes it's just where they start the feeding, in the neck or the wrist, sometimes the leg, and that is always lethal. Even if they don't take the head off it is too much trauma and the vampire doesn't stop. It's called a Ripper." Stefan described it in hushed tones, avoiding the specificity that he had a recurring problem with becoming a Ripper himself.

"You said Damon's never been like this before, though." Elena pointed out. "Why now?"

"Maybe because Katherine wasn't in the tomb?" Stefan suggested. "I don't know. Damon has gone through some terrible periods before, but he's always kept control. Damon says it's because he doesn't resist it, so he never needs to overindulge. Lexi thinks that some vampires are just made differently from others, or experience trauma that changes them. A lot of people are turned in highly stressful situations, so I don't know what the truth is. Either way we need to catch him and stop him."

I sighed. The couple's inability to accept that Damon needed to _die_ had been frustrating enough in a story, much less reality. Of course given what I had chosen to become, what I was doing... ...there was no good ending to that thought. I wasn't going to try to kill myself and I wasn't going to let myself slip as far as Damon or Klaus. I couldn't go that far, right?

I found myself yanked from the car but what felt like wind, though its lack of impact on the actual car made me suspect it was weird Other Side magic. After screaming as I flew under someone else's power for what felt like ten minutes I found myself crashing into the ground in a forest. Three grungy looking men stood around me in a triangle of loose dirt while another group of similar men stood a few hundred feet away.

"Hi?" I asked the men, none of whom reacted. "So not people who can see ghosts," I said out loud.

"It's not their job," A voice came from behind me and I turned around. "My name is Markos."

"Huh. Any chance the dude named Mark I met was named after you?" I asked, taking in the vaguely swarthy European features and accent.

"It's a common name among my people," Markos smiled. "I am the leader of the spirits of the deceased Travelers. I believe we have much to discuss."

"That we do." I smiled at him. "So you've heard I am a psychic?"

"I heard that, yes." Markos nodded. Then I felt a stabbing pain in my back and fell down. "Unfortunately, while your offer is quite tempting I am going to have to explore another possibility." Markos leaned down and I screamed as I felt a new pain as he shoved his hand into my heart.

[hr][/hr]

[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**

It was roughly 8 PM on Monday when Sheila Bennett channeled the power of the Full Moon to contact my spirit on the Other Side. I watched her cast the spell with some interest; Bennett casting was inefficient, but the bloodline's power made sure it hardly mattered. Sheila channeled the moon into a simple potion of herbs with mystical properties and laid it out in the moonlight before drinking it and looking around.

"So you're the girl who's been messing with my daughter," Sheila looked at me with a cool stare. "Witches aren't supposed to come back from the dead."

"I'm not dead," I explained. "I'm just locked up and I would very much like to get out."

"You're as good as dead, aren't you?" Sheila asked. "If you weren't neck deep in shit you wouldn't be messing around with a teenager who just found her powers and a ghost who hasn't moved on in 145 years."

I paused. "I had a very short window of time to do something that would keep a terrible witch from stealing my body, killing me, and using my power to repeat the process. My father and I were studying a treasure that let me escape from that witch, but I escaped into a place I am having a lot of trouble getting out of."

"What, exactly, do you think you need to get out of the hole you dug yourself?" Sheila asked, her stare unnerving me.

"The spell to free me needs the blood of a witch, a crystal called an Ascendant, and a creature bound in Los Angeles that I channeled to power the spell. The crystal needs to be in here with me, while relocating the creature would be _tricky_ and I think setting up a connection on both sides would make more sense. The crystal is in the hands of the witch who was trying to kill me last time I checked." I paused again. "Also I might only have five years to get this done, but my information source is pretty sketchy."

"Oh, child, you know I am not going to help you," Sheila said. "I am not going to risk my family to go up against something like that no matter how much a witch needs killing. You're-"

"The Travelers are coming to Mystic Falls," I explained. "That is a fact. If they can, they won't think twice about killing a descendant of witch who cursed them."

"I can handle some crazy gypsy witches, girl. This doesn't help you." Sheila's voice sounded sad but measured.

"I'm not alone," I explained. "I have someone else locked in here, and he's _working_ with the Travelers right now. He's going to do his best to get them on his side. He calls himself a psychic, and from what I have seen he knows enough to make the world a much more dangerous place if he thinks that will help him."

Sheila took a step forward. "You are telling me to run, not to help you."

I shook my head. "No, I'm not. I didn't say he was making Mystic Falls more dangerous, I said he was making the _world_ more dangerous. You want to know what he's bribing the Travelers with? He's offering them help to complete a spell that will break their curse and mess up every piece of magic in the world."

Sheila was starting to look worried, now.

"You're too good a witch to think I am lying. How many friends do you have who you can only see through penny ante necromancy at your age? The Travelers do what they are planning, that's gone, as is every magic herb you take with your coffee to stretch out your life and every piece of your heritage that you have devoted your life to. Sure, don't _fight_ for me, don't go up against anything that scares you, but you have to look for _something_ that will stop him from working with those bastards."

"Even if you're not lying you might be crazy," Sheila answered. "If you think I am going to help you just because you can paint a scary picture than you are in for a surprise."

"Alright." I sighed. "You don't have to believe me, yet. When Travelers start showing up, when Klaus or _Mikael_ show up in this town, maybe you'll start to think that maybe you made a mistake." I paused. "You're a professor, you look up old stories and myths to see what your family has lost. I want you to think about the legends you suspect are true, and what happens if someone knows they are true can convince the Travelers to start taking real risks."

"Why don't you just kill this man if he's scaring you so much?" Sheila asked. "Seems like it would save us all a lot of trouble."

"...I can't." Sheila raised an eyebrow at me. "For a _lot_ of reasons. If you can find some way to help us get out, then your chances of avoiding something really bad get a lot better than trying to talk me into murder."

"I am not going to be bullied. Go. We can talk _next_ month." Sheila glared at me, and I returned to the prison world.

[hr][/hr]

When I first entered Jeremy's bedroom I noticed that several strange men and woman had apparently taken it over, surrounding Jeff and holding him down. "Huh."

The group looked up at me. " _Vados,"_ I said, and the room exploded in telekinetic motion and fury. There was no way giving these guys a chance to respond would end well.

_"Lihednat Dolchitni!"_ One of the Travelers shouted and I gasped, feeling my throat clench before I blasted the spell away with an effort of will. " _Lihednat Dolchitni!"_ Another shouted, and then another, as it became a chant. I raised my hand. " _Vodux!_ " Jeff rocketed out the window and I went out of the room and closed it. " _Incendia_ ," I whispered and I felt the heat of the new fire from the other side of the door. " _Vis porta._ " I finished my round of magic with a spell stolen from Emily's grimoire to make sure nobody could get through the door even if it was opened, and then I bolted down the hall.

Jeff was lying on the ground and I saw the frantic moves of the strangers up in the house as they tried to escape. " _Vis Porta,"_ I said again, focusing on the window, and the man trying to get through the window screamed as he was pushed back. I felt a small flash of pride at that. Jeff's heart was not beating, but I doubted that actually meant much. I was more surprised when another full grown man seemed to roll right out of him onto the lawn.

" _Evas Elabuk-_ " I cut him off with a glare backed up by my fear and anger, pulping a grape sized piece of his brain stem with magic.

I tossed the man aside and put my hand on Jeff's chest. " _En Dugas, Tuas, Animos."_ I thanked the vague God impressed on me by American culture that I had read enough of Emily's grimoire to copy her method of resuscitation. Jeff sat up with a gasp.

"So, pretty sure the Travelers screwed me with a rusty screw," Jeff told me once he stopped writhing.

"No kidding," I answered. "Now let's get out of here before they get out of there." I pointed up at the house.

"Yeah." Jeff picked me up. "Let's." Then I felt the whoosh of air as Jeff entered into his super speed mode.


	5. Chapter 5

**Lauren**  
  
As fun as it was to ride around Mystic Falls and set fire to every building, it was somewhat disappointing to know that it would all grow back. Flinging around fire did make me feel better, though.  
  
"So, any idea what they were even doing?" I asked Jeff, who sat in the passenger side looking a bit dejected.  
  
"Um, want crazy meta-theory based on TV I watched or just the facts?" Jeff asked.  
  
I sighed. "Crazy guesswork, please." He wouldn't have offered it if he didn't think it would help.  
  
"Travelers are cursed so the land won't let them stay. This isn't the land that is cursed. They want a colony here, or a homeland, depending on how they interpret this place. If a few hundred of them squatted in the Mall of America and kept robbing the camping section that might be a lot better than being homeless body snatchers I guess."  
  
"I thought they were trying to impersonate you or possess you or something," I admitted. "That makes sense, though."  
  
"I wonder if they could have babies in here. If they can then people have lived in way worse places in the real world. People have thrived in ice caps and deserts. A tribe of witches dealing with a magically resetting environment could probably do better. Depending on how easy it is to live near food stores and warehouses you might be able to support a much larger population than modern Earth in this realm." Jeff nodded.  
  
"Oh come on! They don't want to settle down and make babies, they want to kill all the witches and rule the world!" I snapped. "If they survived they just need to find some power source big enough and they can keep bringing their spirits in until we get overwhelmed. Maybe they don't even need a big power source if enough of them get together and chant."  
  
"I think they need a couple dozen dead to do their big rez magic ritual. I don't think they have enough for that? Maybe Markos is strong enough they won't need that, though." Jeff suggested.  
  
"Darn. Let's assume the worst case and they can bring back all the Traveler ghosts in short order. What's your plan for fixing your mess?" I looked over to glare at the "Immortal."  
  
"Um, bring a bunch of vampires through?" Jeff suggested. "There's got to be a lot of them and the Travelers can't conquer the world if they're fighting a bunch of vampires. If their endgame is just squatting here we might be able to just run ahead of them, but if they want to use this as a staging ground they will probably need to get back to Earth. If they need to get from here to Earth, then they're working on a path we can use."  
  
"That's optimistic." I scowled. "Just admit you screwed up, okay?"  
  
"I screwed up," Jeff admitted readily. "I got cocky and greedy."  
  
I frowned. "Say the _other_ thing you want to say." I demanded.  
  
Jeff's voice sounded resigned. "Lauren, they'd already sent agents and this has nothing to do with what I told them. This might have happened even if I didn't work with the Travelers. I made a bad move, but we need to be clear headed about this. The Travelers might have done something like this anyway."  
  
"How the hell do witches ever stay married?" I thought out loud. "If you can feel every squirmy self-righteous excuse that someone bites down how do people ever make up?"  
  
"I'm sorry. Any idea where Vicki ran off to?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Huh. Yeah, we need to find her. I honestly don't know where she went. Last time we checked in she was heading for pizza in Virginia Beach or something. Something about 'real food' and 'sick of microwaves.' I'd head that way, but I'd rather try to keep a lid on this situation and there's no telling where Vicki decided to go after that."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
We located our "headquarters" for managing the Traveler Crisis in the Lockwood Mansion. Using the mayor's home office I found a map of the town and marked off important locations while Jeff marked off a list of ways to fight off a Traveler invasion.  
  
"So you only have one idea besides getting a ghost vampire army?" I asked with some disbelief.  
  
"Well, witches don't seem _that_ hard to kill with guns, but we don't seem to have a source of rifleghosts on the Other Side." Jeff smiled. "So either it's vampires, or we see how much juice is really in a comet powered spell planted a century and a half ago. Did I misunderstand what a Siphoner can do?"  
  
"...no," I answered. "In theory I can Siphon an active, standing spell like the one on the tomb. That would be a lot of energy for doing something new. Too much energy can kill you, but that's _probably_ a sane amount of energy for me if I use it right away. But what on Earth do we _do_ with a spell like that?"  
  
"Curse them?" Jeff suggested after a moment's thought. "Big curses on groups worked before. Why not curse them?"  
  
"Huh. Well, it'd need to be bound to something that lasts between the resets. I could probably tie it to you if I had some of your blood. I would need something bound to _all_ the Travelers if we wanted to keep all of them away, though." I began to think out loud. "Maybe blood from Markos, if he is their leader and especially if they all descend from him. It won't be anything like the curse on them on Earth, but yeah, it might work. I don't know a lot about curses, but with the power of Emily's tomb binding spell I could probably take a decent wack at it."  
  
"Excellent." Jeff sighed. "So, these are the Travelers, people fighting witches for two thousand years. Tell me, how would you make sure this wouldn't work?"  
  
"Damn it." I closed my eyes and tried to focus. "Are we _sure_ that Markos came through? Did you actually see him on both sides? Do we even know he _was_ Markos? If really old Traveler spirits are a weak spot they might not have deployed them here, though maybe they didn't realize we could cast a major curse. Even with that energy it will take a while to figure it out. If you have enough magical power you can break any spell, so if the Travelers can gather into a group on this side they could break anything we could cook up. Maybe if I could copy the old curse on them in the real world so they can't gather and break it, but magic like that is going to be like, 40 dead witches no matter how much energy I can get. But maybe I could throw a spell at them to drive them insane or give them all cancer."  
  
"So a curse is a major boon, but not going to solve the problem by itself," Jeff said. "Alright, that circles around to vampire army. Biggest problem is that we don't have one. I don't know of any dead vampire armies who we could work with besides maybe Marcel's. Sure, one vampire and a human army is a vampire army in waiting, but we don't have anything like _that_ , either. There's the tomb vampires, but I don't think they'd be happy with us if we had them all burned and then asked their ghosts for help."  
  
"Okay, so we don't have any vampire armies. What's your alternative?" I asked, feeling just a bit hysterical.  
  
"We're two people against a nation, even if they're a nation of crazy hobos. We clearly need a nation on our side." I frowned. "Alright, we know the Travelers and the Gemini Coven hate each other." I frowned, wondering when he thought he'd told me that specifically. "So, if we don't have a vampire army we get a witch army." Jeff paused. "Now is probably the time to admit I know very little about the Gemini Coven as they became a major thing after I stopped watching."  
  
"The Gemini Coven is powerful and old. Arguably they practice seriously dark magic, though they would disagree with the claim. They have twins, and the twins fight to the death with the stronger one gaining the magical power of the other. That makes them strong enough to conduct life bonding rituals." I explained. "It makes the whole coven strong."  
  
"Wait, really? That's almost literally Wizards of Waverly Place." Jeff frowned.  
  
"What on Earth is that?" I asked.  
  
"Disney Channel sitcom that may or may not exist here. All the children of the family duel over who gets to keep magical powers with the rest becoming human."  
  
"So they kill each other?" I asked. "What kind of Disney Channel do you have?"  
  
"Um, no, or not usually. Wait, the Gemini Coven do kill each other?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Yeah, I thought that was implied with 'duel.' So if you think blood sacrifice is dark magic then they're totally dark witches, but a lot of covens insist that is a political distinction and use other terms for dark magic."  
  
"...makes sense. So would they go after the Travelers?" Jeff sounded hopeful.  
  
"Yes. They say it is their coven that cursed them in the first place. If that is true or not is a thing covens have had wars over. According to the Gemini Coven's history of the events, the covens of the world traveled to Greece to share knowledge. The group that became the Travelers decided they wanted to stay in Greece and use that power to rule. As this progressed, the greatest witch of the gather covens fell in love with the young and powerful leader of the assembled groups. He convinced her that the covens would need his leadership if their new country would survive, and so she made a spell to make them both live forever. You know their names." I felt a rising satisfaction, as I knew something Jeff didn't for once.  
  
"Silas and Qetsiyah," Jeff answered, looking captivated.  
  
"On what was to be their wedding day, Silas stole the potion that Qetsiyah had made for them. Silas was in love with another woman, Qetsiyah's servant and friend, who he wanted to be with forever. According to legend, Qetsiyah's wrath was like nothing the world had ever seen. She used the darkest of magic to undo her spell on her friend and carve out the woman's heart. Then she gave Silas a weapon that could kill even him and trapped him to starve until he took his own life. Then Qetsiyah cast her greatest spell to catch the soul of Silas when he died, creating the Other Side. The spell wrapped around the entire world, catching every witch who died in Qetsiyah's rage."  
  
"I'm sorry," Jeff asked as I took a moment to breathe. "Why did this lead to the Travelers and the Gemini Coven fighting?"  
  
"The Gemini Coven were not among the groups that gathered. They simply found their dead were lingering on the Other Side. They sought out the source and discovered the Travelers, still gathered and ready to work dark miracles in Qetsiyah's legacy. The Gemini Coven saw the doom that had befallen their dead, and knew no good could come from the great workings of the Travelers. They called on the firstborn wrathful spirits of the Other Side and grew wise from the dead before they cast a spell as grand as Qetsiyah's. The curse poured the rage of the Other Side at the Travelers, unleashing a great earthquake which quenched their young city. The survivors fled back to their homelands, but the wrath could not abate as long as the sins of the Travelers enraged every witch who died and was caught in the Other Side. If the Travelers stayed anywhere long the curse would catch up with them, burning their camps or bringing storms to their fields. Soon the Travelers learned to stay on the move, ahead of their judgment. When Travelers gathered in groups or stayed somewhere long enough they always met with the justice of the dead."  
  
"...not exactly the version I heard, but close," Jeff said cautiously. "So if I understand it right they want to cast a spell that breaks magic so the curse can't work anymore."  
  
"You know more about that than I do. It seems drastic, and wouldn't they lose their own magic? I can't imagine they'd want that." I countered.  
  
Jeff frowned again. "There was something about their own magic being pure and not being effected.  
  
"Ah." I smiled. "I think what you're missing is that they are going after _spirit_ magic, the magic that uses the Other Side. Admittedly that is a lot of magic. Maybe put up a wall to keep spirits from effecting the world? I'd need to look at their spell to figure out what exactly their plan is. I don't quite get how doppelganger blood can be used to create an expanding field of magic and vampire killing that will give the Travelers a homeland."  
  
Jeff looked thoughtful. "So the Gemini Coven and groups like them would still be worried about the Travelers even ignoring the magic killing thing, because if they settle down somewhere they will build up and do more doom spells." Jeff nodded. "Any idea how to contact them? Or any other groups you know of?"  
  
"...there's covens in California where I am from," I admitted. "Some would help, but not many. The witches I knew are just ordinary people, mostly. They keep their heads down and try to avoid predators like vampires and dark witches. There's covens everywhere, but witches aren't anymore fond of strangers than normal people are. There's some old American Indian covens who never learned to speak English and are still hiding out in the wilds and there are covens in Latin America that hardly consider themselves the same species as the American ones. European covens have been at war for centuries so working with any of those makes enemies. I am sure that if you got up close on the ground you'd find people who would work against the Travelers, but that's what the witch world looks like from my own territory."  
  
"Huh." Jeff nodded, looking a bit stunned. "Is there anything that isn't witch that might help?"  
  
I paused. "I mean, there's vampire gangs here and there, but they don't usually last long. Werewolves have been hunted by vampires for a thousand years and have learned not to trust anyone else. I mean, there are _stories_ about all kind of things, but unless you want to go chasing rumors on the off chance we find something friendly I wouldn't bet on any of it."  
  
"Sensible. So our best bet is figuring out how to contact the Gemini Coven. How do we do _that_?" Jeff sounded frustrated by now.  
  
"Well, the Gemini Coven works with spirits and we know at least one spirit in Emily. Let's ask her." I suggested.  
  
"So it's play a telephone game with Emily Bennett as our line again." Jeff sighed. "Why can't we be the ones who are stuck handling Damon?"  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Wyld**  
  
Emily looked mildly annoyed when I met her in the Other Side, specifically Sheila Bennett's bedroom.  
  
"I thought our business was done," Emily sounded tired.  
  
"New shit came up. What do you know about the Travelers?" I asked Emily.  
  
"Katherine's people, before she became a vampire," Emily nodded.  
  
"That never made any sense to me," I shook my head. "I mean I get that she wasn't a Traveler after she became a vampire, but wasn't her father a land owner? Why didn't the curse hit when she was in England before she died?" It was probably just bad writing, but what the hell did _that_ mean when it was the real world?  
  
"I don't know," Emily answered. "She didn't tell me much, besides her father being a monster. She said he never taught her magic. That is what I know."  
  
"I guess it makes sense. Doppelgangers come from Silas and Amara, and Amara's family would have become Travelers." I stopped the digression. "But here is the deal, Travelers have found their way into the plane I am stuck in."  
  
"Is this a problem?" Emily sounded amused. "I thought you were a psychic. Shouldn't you have known this would happen?"  
  
"I don't know everything. But anyway, I can't imagine this goes anywhere good. I was trying to make a deal with them and they decided to attack me instead. What do you know about people who might stop the Travelers from getting a foothold here?"  
  
"Well, few witches have any love for the Travelers. In North America I believe the Gemini Coven is their most frequent foe. They are-"  
  
I interrupted Emily. "I know about the Gemini Coven. Can you contact them for me?"  
  
"They call on spirits from the Other Side. I have met with their ancestors, though not often. All witches are like a great family," Emily answered. I tried not to square that with Lauren's description of paranoid global anarchy.  
  
"I would very much appreciate if you could do that. Thank you, Emily." I smiled at her. "Is there anything I can do for you in return?"  
  
"My descendant, Sheila. She is scared of your girlfriend." Emily winked at me. "Try to be the one to visit her next time."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
Checking in on Stefan and Elena showed they were sleeping in a hotel without any corpses nearby. I considered that a rotating checkup on the main cast was probably a thing worth setting up, though not a priority today.  
  
I found Vicki with a tracking spell; she was in a bar in a nearby town. It was easy to get there with Immortal speed and I found her completely wasted.  
  
"Captain Know-It-All!" Vicki greeted me with a raised bottle. "Come to wreck my buzz?"  
  
"This dimension's been invaded by what I am just going to call evil witches. We need to stick together," I explained.  
  
"There's evil witches now?" Vicki frowned and tilted her head. "Since when?"  
  
"Um, probably a few thousand years, but they became our problem about six hours ago. Stop drinking and let your vampire liver work. I need my right hand vampire." I smiled at her.  
  
"Isn't Lauren the right hand? Or do you do that with your left?" Vicki made a jerking motion and I sighed.  
  
"Vicki, I don't believe in mind controlling my friends, but if I think you're liable to go off and get yourself killed because you got drunk I am totally going to compel your vampire ass to sober up." I stood firm.  
  
"Fine, fine. The eye thing can't work on vampires though, right? Or Stefan would've totally kept me locked up," Vicki mumbled.  
  
"Vampires can compel humans, Original Vampires can compel other vampires, True Immortals can compel just about anything. I think the Original Mom baked that in on purpose, actually. She didn't turn herself so she wouldn't want compelled witches."  
  
"Man what?" Vicki picked up another bottle and I shattered it with telekinesis. "Dude!"  
  
"Vicki." I crossed the room at super speed. "Behave." I flexed my psychic power for the first time outside of frantic attempts to break through to the real world on the Other Side and a few practice matches with Lauren. Vicki's breathing and heart rate seemed to slow down.  
  
"Okay." Vicki nodded. "I will behave."  
  
"Good girl." I paused. "That might've been totally and creepily sexist. Um, here." I offered her my wrist. "Take some blood to heal up so you can tell me off for this."  
  
"Thanks!" Vicki took my wrist in her hands and bit in hard. I marveled for a second at Vicki's hand, entirely restored from our fight by a visit to the Other Side. Vicki's cheer turned into a scowl over several seconds as she tasted my blood and began to think clearly. I could see the fog of drunkenness fall out of her mind as my blood helped her body heal, letting her push away the fragile compulsion I had used on her.  
  
"Okay, mind control is _not cool,_ " Vicki announced after she snapped her head back with a flash of will.  
  
"It was necessary," I insisted.  
  
"So evil witches, huh. What are we doing about that?" Vicki asked.  
  
"First, we capture one of them." I watched Vicki smile. "We need to know what they are planning, and they probably are not prepared for one of the things I was telling the truth about." I smiled back at Vicki. "It's good to be psychic."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
As I had suspected, the Travelers had established their own base in the Mystic Grill. Vicki and I could not get within a hundred feet of the place due to some kind of boundary spell, and I didn't want to risk trying to see if Lauren could get through or not. The Travelers had boarded up every window and seemed to have barricaded the doors. A handful seemed to be standing watch with hunting rifles that I guessed they'd looted from local homes.  
  
"So my plan A is we use me as bait, hope they rush out of the scary magic circle, and then you grab one and we bolt." Vicki announced after considering things.  
  
"Let's do that immediately," I suggested. "The longer we wait the longer the Travelers have to prepare. I don't want to let witches stay on the offensive if we can help it." I paused. "Actually, I'll be the bait, you run in and grab someone. I'm harder to kill and they probably know about me _and_ they probably want me again. You're faster and stronger."  
  
"I like this plan." Vicki laughed. "Okay. I'll hide." I waited a minute to give Vicki a chance to prepare and I went to the end of the street and began to march down it like a sitting duck.  
  
"Fools!" I shouted. "Do you think you could take me on in my own domain?" I began to focus on cars and started setting them on fire, thoroughly enjoying the performance. The Travelers began yelling in whatever the language they used among themselves was. A minute later Markos emerged, looking sleepy.  
  
"Seriously?" Markos asked. "How do you think this ends?"  
  
"I don't know," I shrugged. "Minute I draw blood you're a corpse, so I think I'll have to get clever." I glared at Markos and tried to Compel him to come out towards me.  
  
Markos started walking towards me. "You're not very smart you blood drinking freak, are you?" The ancient man seemed to be cheering up.  
  
"Eh, couldn't hack grad school to a PhD level. Sorry to disappoint Your Highness." I mock bowed. Markos kept advancing. I felt a wave of telekinesis hit me and suck me towards the boundary, and I felt a huge impact as I smashed into it. The boundary didn't let me through, though.  
  
"You think this is a game?" Markos asked, standing quite close to me. "My people have been at war for two thousand years. We are not playing."  
  
"Maybe not, _Vodux,_ " And I pushed Markos out of the boundary with more telekinesis. He stood, stunned for a moment, before Vicki speed by and grabbed him, disappearing from my sight a moment later.  
  
At this point I expected the telekinesis to be gone, but of course it was Traveler magic, and a bunch of people inside the Grill were doing most of the work, not just Markos. More Travelers began to emerge and give a chant that made me start to see black.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**  
  
"You _lost_ Jeff?" I glared at Vicki.  
  
"It was his idea," Vicki muttered defensively. "We got this guy, though." Vicki paused. "Though I don't think we can read his mind without Jeff so the plan didn't really work." She gestured at the man collapsed on the floor with a broken jaw, broken ankles and broken wrists.  
  
"I'm not a psychic and you can't mind control a Traveler," I agreed. I knelt down next to the handsome man. He looked up with an agonized glare. "There's other things we can do though." I nodded at Vicki. "Let's fix him up."  
  
Vicki bit open her wrist and put it against the Traveler's distorted mouth. I watched the man gasp and choke as his jaw began to heal.  
  
"Witch," He gargled. "Let me go!"  
  
"I'm more than a witch," I told him. "We lost a friend to get you. I want you to understand I am not scared of you and I am going to hurt you to get you to talk if I have to."  
  
"Do you think I'm scared of you?" He looked up at me. "When men settled in this land I was older than the vampires. Do you think I am a stranger to pain?"  
  
I stood above him, suppressing my hate and planning what I would say next. "You piece of murderous gypsy scum, have you ever met a Siphoner?"  
  
The Traveler's face changed. "If you are what you say you are you should work with us. Witches hate Siphoners as much as they hate Travelers."  
  
"Some do, sure. I've got witches I want to kill. You, on the other hand, spurned my friend's offer to work with you and attacked him instead. So here is the thing. I am not going to bother torturing you. I am going to strip so much mystic power from you so fast you will never get it back and then I will kill you. You will wander the Other Side a powerless phantom forever, useless to your people and unable to help yourself. If I do that I grow stronger. Tell me what you can do for me that is better than getting more magical power."  
  
"My people would _destroy_ you!" The Traveler flinched back. "They would hunt your family down to the last member!"  
  
"My family's dead. Coven of the Thirteen raided us just before I got stuck here. As far as I can tell you'd try to kill me anyway to get this jail for yourselves. Try again." I snarled.  
  
The Traveler closed his eyes. "Do it." He said. "I am not going to betray my people."  
  
I stood still for a moment. Without Jeff we couldn't be sure of any information we got from him. Any spells I knew to extract information could be countered or fooled by an ancient Traveler. If he had time he could turn the tables on me.  
  
I placed my hand on the Traveler's forehead and I saw a weak crimson light as my powers made contact with his. I closed my eyes and sighed with relief as I boiled and purified the power, using it as fuel to increase my own. The gypsy began to writhe in panic, but it was done almost instantly.  
  
"That's cold." Vicki whispered.  
  
I looked over at the vampire. "Vicki, he won't tell us anything. Time for dinner."  
  
Vicki looked frightened, but she was a vampire, and that trumped anything else she might feel. I stood up as I saw the teeth enter the Traveler's throat.


	6. Chapter 6

**Lauren**  
  
The Travelers had attacked my prison, my person and my friend. Their assault was unprovoked and brutal. I took to a chalk board and wrote out the assets each side had.  
  
Team Lauren had one neophyte vampire with a drug problem, two mystically refilling bins of magical materials, one magically refilling cooler of blood, one Ascendant crystal, a magical Kindle grimoire I had made by accident, and what Jeff had described as "The Greatest Witch Ever."  
  
Team Traveler had Jeff, who was a conduit to bringing in Traveler spirits from the Other Side, two thousand years of dead Travelers to bring through, a tradition of magic I was unfamiliar with, hundreds of years at war with witch covens, and unknown goals they were willing to die for at minimum. I could not discount other possibilities either, such as kidnapped witch children as Jeff had theorized they could have raised or perhaps vampire allies. I doubted they would try to call on truly dark magic, but they might try sacrificial magic if they could channel nature without backlash.  
  
"Hey," Vicki asked me, knocking me out of my own little world. "If you can suck magic out of things, can you turn a vampire human?" We were sitting in Vicki's living room, surrounded by note paper and grimoires.  
  
I shook my head. "You aren't a human with magic in you, you're a _corpse_ with magic in you. With that magic it is like your life is supercharged. You heal, you eat, you breathe, you feel. But it's life inside death, not life. Remove the magic and you're dead."  
  
"Oh," Vicki whispered. "I mean, I don't want to be a ghost again. I'd rather be a vampire than just like, sleep forever. But that's still depressing."  
  
"If I knew a way to turn you human safely I'd offer," I said honestly. "But if there's a way, then someone has spent a thousand years suppressing it." I paused. "I might move your spirit into a normal human body. If I found a fresh enough corpse you like or something."  
  
"Jesus, that's gross." Vicki shook her head. "Let's not ever do that."  
  
Vicki stiffened. "Travelers coming around back."  
  
"Thank God for vampire hearing." I nodded at her.  
  
"Lockwood Mansion?" Vicki asked.  
  
I shook my head. "I have a better idea." I closed my eyes and focused on my anger and my fear, feeling the churn deep inside me.  
  
I looked out the back window. There were four Travelers in a diamond formation, each one holding a hunting rifle. These were guards for twelve Travelers sitting yoga style in a truck bed, chanting in Czech. I pointed my hand out. " _Phasmatos Motus Robix."_ I chanted the Bennett version of the telekinesis spell, gathering power from the air, and the truck flipped forward, casting the Travelers down. " _Vados!"_ The engine exploded, sending gasoline and metal bits everywhere. _Phasmatos Incendia!"_ I felt a wave of satisfaction as the gas sparked into fire.  
  
"Um..." Vicki looked out at the destruction. The Travelers who had been in front were desperately trying to save their peers.  
  
" _Phasmatos Somnus_!" My voice cracked and all four able bodied Travelers collapsed into unconsciousness. "You said the Lockwood Mansion?" I asked Vicki with a smile.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Over the next three days I observed the Travelers through astral projection and other forms of divination. An assault without an Immortal was too risky. Even with Jeff in play he had gotten captured.  
  
As far as I could determine the Traveler army was growing because they could use Jeff as a link to the Other Side. As an Immortal his body could resist the stress of the spells they used to bring a ghost through his body and into the prison to manifest physically. As the Travelers had nothing like Emily's talisman the spell required a lot of Travelers working together, but they had a lot of Travelers working on both sides. The Travelers were using a sleeping spell on Jeff to sedate him, and since they were speaking in their bastard European language I had no idea what they were planning.  
  
Emily proved _useless_. According to her the Gemini Coven was sending _a_ witch to investigate the Traveler mess. This largely defeated my purpose in contacting the damn Gemini Coven, which was to lower the numbers disparity. What was one witch going to do that I couldn't? There were hundreds of Travelers in the prison world preparing, well, whatever it was they were preparing.  
  
I needed information and I needed it fast. I had to cast a powerful divination spell in uncertain conditions, and this required some rather unpleasant materials. This was the perfectly natural reason for Vicki to be digging up the grave of Amelia Bennett, the mother of Sheila Bennett while I held a big camping lantern and provided instructions as well as moral support.  
  
Super strength was Vicki's cross to bear and she bore it with cursing and indignation. "Why. Is. Magic. So. Creepy!?" Vicki shouted. "No, we can't just get a bowl at a pet shop. We need a bowl of _bones_. And we need a bowl of _witch_ bones. How do we even make a bowl out of bones?"  
  
"It's not a bowl made of bones, it's a bowl _filled with_ bones," I explained. "We can totally use a bowl from a pet shop if you want."  
  
"Bowl. Of. Bones." Vicki grumbled. "Why can't magic have nice ingredients?"  
  
"Well, flip it around. Burning sage is smells really nice and is useful in cloaking spells. Would you have anything close to the same emotion at a nice ingredient? If you need chalk and flowers then you forget about it. When you need to fill a bowl with finger bones you don't forget that shit."  
  
"Aren't there like, _really good_ and _super nice_ ingredients that give a tone of awesome power?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Yes, but those are _also_ creepy to a lot of people. Drugs are used in all kind of magic, but if you're high then you typically can't _do_ a lot that is useful. There's supposedly sex magic in Asia, but considering how much magical knowledge is passed down through _families_ I am glad that if anyone is keeping that legacy alive they're keeping it super quiet."  
  
"Ew," Vicki shuddered. "Ew, ew, ew.." Then she shouted for joy. "We hit the coffin!"  
  
In my opinion, if you are collecting a hard to get ingredient that will find itself back in a grave when the world resets, you do it early at night. This _did_ mean that I would have had more time with the bones if I had not been hit with a sudden telepathic shout in my head.  
  
**Wyld**  
[hr][/hr]  
  
_The hot sun beat down on me as I plowed. I felt a flash of hate towards the Earth's selfish power, sensing it just within my reach, twisting and ready to burn me if I called on it._  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
_I laughed at the old baron. "I am sorry, the Tarot is clear. You will die this summer." I leaned forward. "However, there is a spell that may save your life."_  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I gasped awake, tasting blood. I heard some low chanting in Czech. _"Remember, remember, remember."_ Or was it _"zapamatovat si?"_ I tried to focus. I'd lost a fight, blacked out surrounded by Travelers. Clearly there were more Travelers around me. I tried to move my head so I could look around and I realized I was stuck. I tried to see where I was and realized I was blind. I was blind, but I could see Travelers standing around me. What the hell?  
  
I took a while to collect myself. I was buried alive with spikes through my hands and stomach. I was seeing through the eyes of someone else, more than one other person, actually. I focused on their thoughts, buzzing like flies. I felt a push back, but that was trivial to overpower.  
  
"Ah," I said out loud. They had linked my mind with two of their own Travelers so they could read my memories and figure out what on Earth was going on. I was amused by the rising panic I heard in the Traveler minds as they realized just how easy it was for me to their thoughts with the link. They wanted to know about me, well...  
  
No time for games. It was time to try something I could barely remember from the show. In The Vampire Diaries, sometimes a vampire could pull a long range telepathic message. It was time to try and reach out to Lauren and Vicki.  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I beat against the wall of "I really should have practiced this instead of martial arts" as I wondered if I had sent anything successfully or not. It had become a bit of a mantra.  
  
Suddenly I smelled smoke and felt something drop on me. With a moment's thought I created a tiny flame on my left index finger to see what had happened. I picked up a piece of paper with my right hand.  
  
"WE HEAR YOU STOP SHOUTING." I smiled.   
That being settled I turned my attention back to the linked minds of the Travelers. Both of them were still unconscious. No one had bothered to break the link between our minds, presumably not realizing that mere unconsciousness would provide no protection against _my_ mind reading. I sat back and began to explore the schemes and spells of the Traveler nation.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**  
  
Vicki leaned over my shoulder as I worked on the bones. "Okay," I announced. "Jeff is trapped underneath a river near Wickery Bridge. They wanted him awake so they could link their minds to his and figure out what the hell he was. Being an Immortal he used the psychic connection to fry their brains and read their minds. Before they put him in the river they put him in a coffin and wrapped the coffin in plastic, so if he managed to break out he'd drown. They made a boundary spell to bind him to the coffin and they linked the spell to the river to power it. When the world resets the spell will be gone, but he doesn't have air in the coffin for that long."  
  
"Huh." Vicki nodded. "Can't vampires enter dreams? Why did they need him awake?"  
  
"Vampires are telepathic. They can figure out all kind of tricks with time. Travelers don't have any experience with telepathy, they're just using a spell. Sure, there's other spells, but this is the one the Travelers _did_ have for mind reading, not the hypothetical spell that is just what they'd want for the situation. So they needed him fairly coherent to interrogate with this spell, so they made sure he had just enough blood in him to get a read outside of 'hungry' and they let him awake up in a way he couldn't escape."  
  
"Alright. So can we just let him drown and pick him up after the spell breaks?" Vicki asked. "Seems like he'd be fine."  
  
"Maybe," I paused. "Vicki, when did you last feed?"  
  
"Um, a couple hours ago. Why?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Imagine you can't breathe for a day. You've been washed out by a river. You just wake up and there's a person right there and you're _hungry_. Do you think you control yourself?" I asked.  
  
"Hell no," Vicki answered. "I've thought about eating you every day since we've met."  
  
"Understandable. You, I could take down no problem if I absolutely had to and force feed you blood until you behave. If we had to do that with Jeff's magic and telepathy, speed and strength? I'm not sure he wouldn't kill one or both of us if we dragged him out of the river tomorrow. We need to do this _fast_ ," I explained. "Preferably before the air runs out."  
  
"How are you getting to the bottom of the river?" Vicki asked. "And _surviving_ , I mean. Do you have a water breathing spell?"  
  
"...no," I admitted. "Getting through all of that water, siphoning the spell locking him in, and getting him out? I can't do that."  
  
"So what are we doing if we don't wait?" Vicki asked.  
  
"I just need a source of power that can move a river." I smiled. "Something like, say, a _comet_."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Jeff and I had tracked down the location of Fell's Church the day after we had found Emily's grimoire. Vicki carried me to the hole in the ground that led to the still preserved tomb beneath the old ruin.  
  
"So there are vampires down there?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Down there and in the real world, yes." I answered. "Twenty-six vampires are in there, since Katherine was never in it."  
  
"How can a spell last that long?" Vicki asked quietly.  
  
"Spells need anchors. For something like a burst of telekinesis, the anchor is the attention of the witch. Anchoring is why a lot of witches make potions, they last longer than their attention and can be applied or done in stages easily. Emily anchored her spell to a passing comet, something permanent and powerful that would come back in a cycle. Unless someone has access to the exact mechanisms Emily used, or something more powerful than a comet, the spell can last forever," I explained.  
  
"Aren't the sun and the moon a bigger deal than a comet? Why isn't it easy for a witch to open it, then?" Vicki asked curiously.  
  
"In a way they are. The cycle of the day and the month gather huge amounts of energy that a witch can channel, but a _long_ cycle can build up enormous power. You could say that the rarity of the event meant that something equally _rare_ was needed to overpower it, though that's not exactly right. I guess the word I would use is _importance_. You would need to channel something as important to nature as a comet that only comes to Earth every 145 years to convince the world to let the spell go, kind of. Obviously there are caveats and exceptions, but that's the heart of it." I liked explaining things, it made me feel wise and powerful, granting me a measure of control that had been so lacking in the Prison World.  
  
"I think I understand." Vicki nodded. She hefted me and jumped down, carrying me into the sinkhole that led to the door of the tomb. Remnants of the Church basement formed into a wall, and on door was an upside down pentagram that someone had chiseled long after the fire.  
  
"This was prepared," I answered Vicki's unanswered question. "I don't know who did it, but someone wanted to make access easier when the time came. Maybe it was Damon."  
  
"Doesn't sound like him," Vicki said, but she sounded unsure. "You really think this will work?"  
  
"If Emily could channel it, I can siphon it." I smiled. "This will be a piece of cake." I put my hand out and the familiar red glow spread from my hand into the door. I closed my eyes as I felt the weave of magic permeating the tomb; protecting yet containing what was inside. As I tugged I began to feel queesy for a moment, natural instincts and mystical senses warning me something was wrong.  
  
My eyes still closed I imagined Jeff recaptured by Travelers, or a raging monster tearing into my face again. I remembered Vicki's attack.  
  
_"It was a fantasy. But if you want some assurance I won't hurt you, I can't give it, but I can tell you that if there is anything I can do to not hurt you I will."_  
  
Jeff was honest, and he had done his best. I siphoned it all.  
  
**Wyld**  
  
The Travelers needed me. I was the connection between the Other Side and the Prison World, and they wanted to control the Prison World desperately. Being able to taste and touch, build things and work together, that mattered so much to people who had been trapped on the Other Side, even if they had some control over it.  
  
My enemies had risked this interrogation because they had absolutely no idea what I was or where I had come from. Paranoia and confusion had filled their camp, and to put an end to these worries they had agreed to explore my mind and learn enough to be sure this pilgrimage into a Prison World, a creation of an enemy magic system. All of their hope and their avarice was tempered by fear, and so they had worked hard to make sure I could not escape.  
  
They had not quite realized they were dealing with a powerful psychic, wisely assuming that my presentation as such when I claimed to be a precog was complete BS instead of the partial BS I had spun. Neither Traveler mind I had investigated had even known of a vampire who could project an illusion of being on fire, much less without eye contact. I doubted anyone besides perhaps the Originals could have used the connection the Travelers had made as well as I did, Silas and Amara naturally excepted. I had hours to think, to explore minds, and to incapacitate the Travelers who had been tasked with reading my mind.  
  
Two thousand years of magical development without access to power channeled from nature was interesting. Without channeling nature the Travelers couldn't really channel _themselves_ like a normal witch could; their own "mana pool" was a part of nature, tied to their breath and blood. Traveler firstborn children usually died as their natural powers came in and they became susceptible to their Curse. As soon as a Traveler child showed their gifts they would go through rites to gain access to their workaround magic system, ripping their spirits out of their bodies with the help of Traveler ghosts and psychedelics in order to find the Astral Plane and begin to draw a trickle of power from there. To my disappointment the _skills_ of Traveler magic were largely the same as those of normal magic, though there were definitely new spells for me to learn.  
  
Travel to the Astral Plane was known by other covens. The focus required to draw power from it was flat out inferior to channeling nature, and you couldn't do both at the same time. I'd had a distant hope I could learn to amplify spells by using both magic systems, but it seemed like the effort to do that would be harder and give less reward than finding other natural sources to channel or working on sacrifices. If I were to get anything out of the Astral power source I would need to work a lot harder than just skimming the surface of Travel minds.  
  
I felt some excitement when I looked over their spells and skills. The Travelers knew some promising forms of divination, though it was heavy on sacrifice and collective magic. Travelers also had hardly become more _efficient_ at magic than normal witches, operating under power constraints had not provided them with marvelous control or anything. Multiple Travelers did seem to memorize the same spells, somewhat complex and designed to feed on each other as an entire group worked to give the spell enough energy to work. If I didn't already have a basic magical education I might have gained a lot more out of this redundancy, but as it was I only saw a few new tricks; a set of spirit possession related spells, divination spells and also some interesting theories of counter-spells.  
  
I was not even feeling dizzy yet when I felt some kind of explosion. The pressure of the river above me collapsed. A minute later a shovel smashed through the top of the coffin and I saw a muddy Vicki in the sunlight.  
  
"Hey," I croaked, and blasted my restraints away with telekinesis and leapt upward. I saw Lauren practically floating and holding one hand outward and the other pointed towards me with a fading red glow. My eyes followed Lauren's hand and I saw a river rising higher and higher against a telekinetic dam.  
  
"Run," Lauren ordered and I did, getting out of the riverbank. Vicki stopped just ahead of me with Lauren in a fireman's carry. I heard a smash as the river came flooding back.  
  
"How?" I asked, watching the awesome flood break into the riverbed.  
  
"I siphoned the vampire tomb," Lauren answered. "It was..." She sighed, falling forward into Vicki. "It was a lot," She finished. "Vodux!" She shouted and I heard a massive crash as a tree fell.  
  
"Thank you." I smiled at Lauren. I saw crushed bodies on the riverbank, looking as if someone had smashed them apart with a giant hammer, and brand new one the just fallen tree. That had to be the Travelers who had been tasked with watching me and recapturing me once I was safe to approach.  
  
"I'd say something witty but I am too beat for that." Lauren turned her head to Vicki. "I want codeine and ambien."  
  
"I know the house to rob," Vicki nodded. "A friend's. Stay here." She handed Lauren to me and blurred out of sight.  
  
"That was, I don't even know." I told Lauren.  
  
"Pretty sure the tomb vamps are lose by the way. It _felt_ like I pulled from the real world." Lauren muttered. "Might take a while, but can you take care of that?" She handed me Emily's talisman.  
  
"Of course. Anything." I paused. "Anything I can do-"  
  
"Got it, being a ghost sucks." Lauren answered. "I'd punch you right now but it'd hurt my hand and you'd barely feel it. What were you thinking?"  
  
"I was thinking Markos would pull a spell out of his ass that would stop your heart or pull some kind of physical buff that would let him take on us all if I gave him another twenty minutes." I answered. "And if I took the time to find you and took you along, well, you could've been hurt."  
  
"I got hurt doing _this_ you bastard!" I helped Lauren onto the ground as she clearly needed to sit.  
  
I snapped my fingers. "Slit throat. Ruptured brain. Heart attack. I go in half cocked, 80% chance I screw up, you can fix it. We both go in, full cocked, 20% chance we screw up, you're a ghost at _best_. I'm sorry, I should have talked to you before I left to find Vicki."  
  
"It's your fault and I am mad at you," Lauren answered, rubbing her temples. "Promise me-" She cut herself off. "No, that won't work with you. Don't make a promise, _understand_ that..." Lauren finally just sighed.  
  
"I will work hard to not be in a situation where I feel I should do something dangerous again," I offered.  
  
"Close enough." Lauren leaned against me with her eyes closed. "You stink by the way."  
  
"I'll shower after Vicki comes back and then go to the Other Side." I sniffed the air, not smelling anything. "Where did you stash Markos, anyway?"  
  
Lauren stiffened. "The guy Vicki grabbed was Markos?" She shook her head against my shoulder. "I killed him already."  
  
"...don't worry about it."  
  
I staggered as I heard a crack and felt a bone in my back break from a gunshot. I turned around on the shattered hip, feeling the bones pop back into place. I had hoped to see a Traveler with a hunting rifle parked on a roof, but that would have been too easy. Either the Travelers knew enough about sniping or hunting to keep themselves out of view, or they could shoot through a cloaking spell; I was unsure which would actually be worse. Another crack rang out and I winced as half of my vision went dark. So I could stay awake from a head shot, that was good to know. I instructed and rushed off with Lauren again.  
[hr][/hr]  
  
The good news was that the door on the tomb was still closed and the vampires inside had failed to notice anything had happened. The bad news was that I had forgotten about Anna. I tried to remember what had happened with Pearl and Anna in the show; Pearl was turned by Katherine and Anna was turned by one or the other. Pearl died like a chump to the Mystic Falls vampire hunting council after she was out of the tomb. Pearl and Anna knew where Mikael was for some reason.  
  
Anna was a very old vampire who had spent the last 150 years waiting for a chance to get her mother out. She had already noticed something had happened somehow, opened the door, and dragged her Pearl out of the tomb. That _had_ been noticed by the desiccated vampires, and if I recalled correctly Pearl was going to start helping them get back on their undead feet sooner rather than later. I sighed. Eventually someone was going to break the tomb open, but I'd hoped it would be me and I could go in with stakes and gasoline.  
  
I returned from my astral projection to see Lauren biting into Vicki's wrist.  
  
"Again?" I asked. "Should I be jealous?"  
  
"Shut up," Lauren snarled. "Hint; don't take vodka with ambien just because the Salvatores are alcoholics and hide booze everywhere."  
  
"Hey." Vicki tossed me a blood pack from the cooler and I bit in, turning away from Vicki's open vein.  
  
I sent the telepathic message while my mouth was full.  
  
"Travelers outside," Vicki announced.  
  
"Thank you vampire hearing," I said. "Fall back to your place?"  
  
"Travelers found us there, stationed some guys nearby." Vicki shook her head.  
  
I considered. "The Gilberts have a lake house. Can you get there?"  
  
Vicki made a face. "Ugh, Matt and Elena boned there. Sure."  
  
"I'll be right behind you." I nodded and Vicki picked up Lauren and vanished. I began to chant up some wards that would hopefully cause the Travelers trouble before they realized we had left.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**  
  
I woke up with my headache gone. Jeff was standing by the window.  
  
"Creep much?" I asked.  
  
"Not much," Jeff answered.  
  
"Anything happen overnight?" I leaned forward. Elena had a change of clothes in the guest house, but I was currently shoeless as Jenna hoarded her shoes like a dragon hoarded her gold. Destroyed shoes were a problem while on the run.  
  
"Damon's back in the Salvatore dungeon. Anna and Pearl are mind controlling some woman to hide them. Travelers are camping out of the boundary spell but aren't trying to tear it down yet. Nothing unexpected." Jeff shrugged.  
  
"Did you actually learn anything important when you read Traveler minds?" I asked, a mix of annoyed and hopeful.  
  
"Markos is reeling from being depowered and re-killed, though they managed to drag his ghost back here from the Other Side before they lost me. It looks like interrogating me was his idea, too, so he's basically halfway to a palace coup. A married couple with the awesome names of Ion and Kizzy were the ones the minds I read were worried about trying something. I got a little out of the minds camped outside and it seems someone named Shandor is in charge of recapturing me. I get the impression that the several hundred reborn Travelers are not the most united of groups." Jeff sat down on the foot of the bed.  
  
"Still, several hundred." I sighed. "Still, we can use that. Any sign of the Gemini Coven agent?"  
  
"Nope, but if I was a Gemini Coven agent fighting Travelers I wouldn't want to be easy to see from the Other Side so that doesn't mean much." Jeff smiled. "Oh, here's a trick." He waved his hand and garbled something that sounded like Czech and Latin mangled together before a steaming cup of coffee appeared in his other hand. "Straight from the kitchen maybe 10 feet through that wall!"  
  
"Nice!" I took it and downed it in a couple of gulps. "Huh, what's that in it?" I asked.  
  
"Vervain and a few drops of Vicki's blood," He answered. "Also a few herbs I got from Sheila's grimoire that might help you bounce back faster. That was a big spell."  
  
"Sounds good." I sighed and leaned back. "How long until we bolt?"  
  
"Vicki's made it look like we already fled half an hour ago. We're meeting up in Grove Hill, a town not too far from here. We can wait a bit more if you want to, but I'd head out once you're dressed."  
  
"Got it." I waited for a moment. "You have to leave the room first."  
  
"Sure thing, soulmate." Jeff thumped the bed with his wrist. "I will be looking at the secret vampire hunting closet the town doctor had in his lake house because of course he did." Jeff strode out of the room.  
  
"I should probably look at that before I go." I said to the empty room and I got dressed quickly, looking mournfully at some old boots of Elena and her mother before I put on a pair of slippers. Hopefully Grove Hill would be convenient. I grabbed my backpack, full of my mystic tool kit, and called to Jeff.  
  
"Ready to leave?" Jeff asked.  
  
I looked at him. "Jeff, you said there's a bunch out there who think we already left."  
  
"Oh," Jeff nodded. "We never did get to capture one for a full mind read."  
  
"You learned enough from the ones you fried over the connection," I disagreed. "I think we just kill them."  
  
"But..." Jeff trailed off. "They aren't doing anything. They're just sitting out there. Like, I get they will attack us later, but it feels different somehow."  
  
"Don't be a pussy," I ordered.  
  
Jeff nodded and took my hand. "I channel you, just in case."  
  
I nodded. "Deal."  
  
We paused for a moment, Jeff reaching out with some psychic sense and I felt Jeff's blood as he channeled me. Jeff's heartbeat hit fast in his chest, the air tasted of salt and pennies, the world seemed to slow down, and then Jeff began to chant. " _Otum adnarvet esnavit atim."_ Jeff nodded. "They're sealed in. I can use that barrier to hold back defensive moves they might make." He picked me up and I felt the whoosh of the world around me as he relocated us at super speed. The Travelers hadn't even noticed our spell, yet. Several were on lookout, with others standing around a table and shouting at each other. "Hold it."  
  
I took over the boundary spell and watched Jeff's face. There was conflict there, but then he put his head down. " _Espirimus Paratis. Espirimus Paratis. Espirimus Paratis."_ Jeff's chant came out, slow and determined, and the Travelers began to fall.


	7. Chapter 7

**Wyld**  
  
Lauren and I sat in a Dunkin Donuts with a stolen laptop, our magical possessions, and a shopping cart of office supplies.  
  
"Alright." I picked up Emily's grimoire. "No personal objects to spy on Mystic Falls from the Other Side since everything that isn't magical goes back to where it was. So do we try another route to link up with the Gemini Coven, or do we raid back to Mystic Falls?"  
  
"If we raid we have a chance of losing you again, and that increases their numbers with no promise of getting you back. I am calling in my veto powers on any plans involving a raid until further notice." Lauren said, looking just a bit annoyed.  
  
"Women don't get automatic veto powers until they become mothers," I argued. "That's just common sense."  
  
"Alright, they don't get _automatic_ veto powers. You've pulled one too many stupid stunts for me to _not_ get veto powers," Lauren counter-argued. I considered.  
  
"This implies that you get increased powers when I do stupid stunts as a penalty. Is this a road you want to go down? This encourages me to do stupid stunts so long as it is worth an expected price." I shrugged.  
  
Lauren glared at me. "Do you actually disagree with me?"  
  
"In concept, yes. If we are to establish a decision making process it needs to be by agreement or consensus. If we don't trust each other enough for that we need to write up a general contract for decision making so we don't fight about it. Now, to minimize fighting at critical moments I would nominate you as the one to make snap decisions under crisis, but I do not think you get a veto power unless we agree on it first." I explained.  
  
"Alright. I suggest that I make all the rules and you follow them, because you have screwed up badly under pressure," Lauren kicked back in the booth and crossed her arms.  
  
"My counter-proposal is this: under situations of crisis you have a right to give orders due to your concerns with my judgment. When outside of a crisis, we have equal weight in decision making. Vicki is never to be used as a tie breaker outside of our mutual agreement that she do so because she is a vampire drug addict." I proposed.  
  
"Hm..." Lauren nodded her head. "Alright. I accept this deal. I still maintain that we do should not make any raids or attacks against prepared positions until we gain new powers or resources. The Travelers have already lost two attack forces against us, and will be preparing countermeasures."  
  
"Devil's Advocate, we're maybe three for five." I counted off my fingers. "First time the Travelers sucker punched me, second time I was lost to their assault, third time you broke the chanting circle in the truck, fourth time you got me out of the river, fifth time we smashed the cabin assault force. When you have been involved we've always won. Wouldn't they have a countermeasure by now if they could have one?"  
  
"We've had at least limited surprise on our side every time we've won. The only time it was a 'fair' fight you lost because you underestimated them. By now they know I can show up with a hideous amount of magical energy out of the blue and they know about your psychic powers. Trust me on this, they only need to get lucky once and we're done for."  
  
"Alright." I nodded. "I agree with you, but I feel honor bound to poke at any plan. The longer the Travelers go unmolested the longer they have to build up power and resources or use spells to gather information. Mystic Falls has a lot of random plot tokens hidden all around town that they might find and use on us. If we tear at the Travelers piece by piece we lower their chances of pulling off anything truly dangerous and we might even win. We have no chance of winning if we leave them be."  
  
"Huh." Lauren frowned. "That makes sense to be honest. My plan is dependent on us actually finding something that can serve as an equalizer. If that doesn't happen, or if it does but they find something to DE-equalize us right back, it's wasted time and energy when the Travelers are at their weakest."  
  
"Alright. On the face of it, both hunting around for treasure that helps us win and trying to rip them apart bit by bit are actually quite risky strategies. Let's talk mitigation. The faster we find something, the more likely we are to succeed. I admit none of my ideas are that likely to materialize _fast_." I pulled a notebook over and ran my finger down the list. "Moonstone is in some well in Mystic Falls, there's some network of caves or something under Mystic Falls with Esther's coffin and a spell on it, New Orleans has an arsenal or two of Dark Objects. All of those could take days of risky searching or months of less risky searching to manage. What I really want is a doppelganger, but I have no clue on how to bring Elena over and I'm guessing Tatia found peace ages ago if she even left a ghost. "  
  
Lauren was silent for a moment before speaking quietly. "This is monstrous, but get Elena killed and _then_ bring her over?" Lauren suggested. "Her blood would be enough to bring her and Vicki back to life with the two of us working on it."  
  
"She'd never agree to that and the minx is too good at the social stuff to risk it without her cooperation." I admitted. "To risk sounding crazy, I don't think any plan that starts with killing an innocent romantic heroine who is literally the star of her own TV show is going to work out."  
  
Lauren blinked at that. "I'll take your word on it."  
  
"Alright. So do we try New Orleans? The covens of that city are old and powerful, and making contact with the Ancestors is probably easier than making contact with people in the real world. You're a local, what's wrong with that idea?" I asked.  
  
"Well, _joining_ the New Orleans witches has problems besides being stuck in a vampire infested city surrounded by werewolves. You know their powers are bound to the general area, right? That sucks, and being bound to them means being bound to their hierarchy and laws. Witches in New Orleans think that everyone should join their coven and concentrate their powers and resources. That is likely to be what they'd want for our help. If we can give them access to artifacts of power that the Prison doubled or a bribe like that, maybe it could work? I don't know Ancestral Magic, but we might even be able to draw the spirits of New Orleans out into the Prison World, though I think they prefer being dead to being alive since they're basically gods in the little realm they cooked up." Lauren paused. "Also I'm not entirely sure they'd _want_ to stop the Travelers to be honest. If the Travelers undid Spirit Magic, the Ancestors don't actually need the Other Side to mediate their access to the world. Depending on the mechanics of the Anti-Magic Field New Orleans might be just fine, and Travelers freed of the curse might be receptive to becoming New Orleans witches."  
  
"Alright. All of those are good points. Right now I'd rate going to New Orleans as a B- tier plan. Finding the moonstone is a D, and finding Esther's coffin is maybe a C+." I answered.  
  
"That's a high rating for finding the witch who thought turning her kids into Originals was a good idea." Lauren frowned.  
  
"She is, well, crazy as hell and immoral as fuck. But she knows a lot, is very strong, has active spells for you to siphon, and would doubtlessly be interested in someone who could eat the magic keeping her children alive. She's probably faster to work with than New Orleans, and maybe more likely to screw us over for whatever passes as a reason in her mind." I considered. "Alright, I suggest we try and find a map of caves in the area of Mystic Falls. If that's an easy kill we do it. Otherwise we head south." I shrugged. "Got any better ideas?"  
  
Lauren considered. "With your knowledge of the 'TV show' is there anything else you consider a bad idea that might work?"  
  
"Huh." I sat there for a minute, thinking. "Silas's island prison is somewhere in Nova Scotia I think. There's a lot of power there, but we can't bring Silas here as he can't really die that easily. Bonnie's mom knows where Esther's husband is hidden and desiccated, but I don't know how that helps us unless we guide someone through killing him, get him to the Other Side, get him here, and Siphon his energy. Um, Klaus and Elijah would die if the Traveler plan goes through, but I have no idea where they are and only a vague idea of how to even get close to them at this point. If we can get a decent agent in the real world there's a lot of things we could try, but so far that's gone nowhere."  
  
"Alright." Lauren sighed. "Let's see what we can do about the caves under Mystic Falls."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
It turns out there is a _lot_ to know about caves in Virginia.  
  
The town itself was named after the waterfall in the region, which was itself surrounded by a cavern system. The entire local geology created a strange set of geological features involving underground rivers moving in and out of caves. Natural tunnels and abundant water honestly explained a lot about the Native American-Werewolf decisions to settle in the region. Natural caves provided protection for the human civilians every full moon.  
  
Using a spell to locate books with "Mystic Falls" in them in the Grove Hill library we discovered records that claimed the caves were used by the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. After breaking into a local history museum we found an old photograph with an ancient looking woman in it who was a slave who had hid in the tunnels, which was enough for astral projection scouting of the area.  
  
I had forgotten that one of the major access points to the tunnels was the Mystic Grill for God knows whatever reason. As the Mystic Grill was Traveler HQ, the Travelers had already sent a scouting team into the cave system that had created a boundary spell, but the Travelers didn't know they had a reason to be exploring the tunnels.  
  
The larger concern was that the Travelers _noticed_ when my spirit was wandering around the area, though their attempts to trap me were pitiful. I discussed if this changed anything with Lauren.  
  
"The way I see it, the Travelers would expect us to do a scouting spell like that no matter what we were planning. It doesn't reveal information besides maybe that we _can_ scout," I suggested. "And anyone who can get to the Other Side from here probably has that capability anyway."  
  
"Still, they will be trying to locate us as we move. I am unsure how well they can do in here. Most things you'd use, like hair or a personal object, aren't available in this world given how it resets. I wouldn't put it past them to know when we approach them, though." Lauren sighed.  
  
"That seems kind of unavoidable," I argued.  
  
"Alright. So what exactly are we looking for?" Lauren asked.  
  
"So, your senses for magic are better than mine, so you should take point on that. There's a bunch of weird runes in one of the caves, and a spell to keep out vampires. I think the coffin's in the same cave, but wouldn't swear to that."  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Lauren**  
  
As it turned out, the freaky magical cave contained information on the Originals that exactly matched what Jeff remembered from the show. It did _not_ contain a coffin of the Original Witch as Jeff had remembered, much to his confusion.  
  
"So, from what you remember, one of the Bennett's ancestors made a cave and buried a coffin in it locked and preserved with magic for the Original Witch's corpse, and then put a protection spell on it?" I asked as we looked at the wall.  
  
"Alright. Either I just failed a knowledge check or the setting is slightly different from the show," Jeff mused. "It has been a while since I watched the part where she came back."  
  
"Hell," I sighed. "It seemed so simple if we could get Esther to help. Risky but simple." I paused. "So, we've got one powerful magical spell that is several times older than the one on the vampire tomb out of the deal. I'm guessing we use it, but what do we use it _on_?"  
  
"Well, do we use it? If the Originals get here first then they might figure out where the White Oak wood ended up. That could be borderline apocalyptic if things go wrong enough. Then again, there'd be samples in this place and the other Prison Worlds even if they did that, so maybe not the worst problem to cause." Jeff frowned. "I assume that we can't just burn enough power to call Esther or Qetsiyah?"  
  
"Not without dying or having something of theirs, no," I answered. "Got anything of theirs?"  
  
"Um, not the best time to be bringing up super random crap from the show, but..." Jeff gestured. "Rebekah had a talisman from her mom, which she lost in the 1920s. Stefan was dating her at the time, but Klaus daggered her and mindwiped Stefan to forget-"  
  
I cut him off. "Get to the point."  
  
"Elena is wearing a necklace filled with vervain that belonged to the Original Witch for no particularly good reason."  
  
"Well then." I considered. "We don't have enough power to rip it off her neck and into our hands." I paused for dramatic effect. "That is, we don't without personal objects belonging to Elena Gilbert, like the ones filling her house."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Vicki began throwing Molotov cocktails into unprotected buildings around 11 PM, which was an hour after the world reset. Starting a serious fire hazard was tried and true as a distraction. What Jeff called "a speedster with IEDs" was a worthy challenge to Traveler disaster response units.  
  
Jeff and I hit the tunnels ten minutes after Vicki started. The Travelers had guards stationed all around the Mystic Grill entrances and strike teams heading towards all of our favorite haunts in the town. We just had to hope I could overcome the one sent to the Gilbert House. I siphoned the cave's magic in one gigantic gulp around midnight, and then we were racing to Elena's bedroom while Vicki defended the sheriff's office from Travelers in trucks. Jeff dropped me off in the backyard and headed to relieve Vicki while I panted for air.  
  
Elena's room felt like home by now. It had clothes that I had to admit were chosen by someone with better fashion sense than I had, and the Gilberts in their depressed and mournful stage still managed a cleaner and more organized house than my family ever had. It was nice to be back in this room, even if I would not have a chance to savor it.  
  
This was a big spell to perform alone, but Jeff and I had worked it out. I projected myself into Elena's room to make sure she was sleeping in her bed, and thanked ambiguous divinities that it was. I'd had no idea if she had any respect for school nights.  
  
I wracked the walls and drawers of Elena's room, building an oval of intimate objects in the mirror of where she slept on Earth. Pictures of friends and family, clothing, her cellphone, jewelry. Then I added Witch Hazel and sage to the oval and lay down inside it. Leaving my body for the Other Side, I saw Elena still sleeping peacefully.  
  
I chanted the mix of languages Jeff had worked on as I circled my hands around Elena's throat. I burned enough power to give myself a nose bleed and I saw the necklace vanish. Elena sat up in bed, feeling the strange sizzle of the teleportation, but that was irrelevant. I pulled myself back to the Prison World and sat up, seeing the necklace on my chest. It was time to reinforce my friends.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Jeff had his eyes closed and was chanting up a storm of water from an exploded fire hydrant and whipping garden hoses. The Travelers had the good sense to leap back, being intimately familiar with the spell that called fire out of water. I briefly wondered if this was really Jeff's best option or if it was another excuse to fight without hurting anyone, but I suppressed the worry; Jeff was doing fine.  
  
Vicki was whimpering in a corner, bleeding from her ears. I considered my wrist, then remembered that I'd just went on vervain and sighed. I still had some excess power left.  
  
_" _Asinta Mulaf Hinto, Sho Bala,_ "_ I chanted and Vicki looked up with relief cascading over her face.  
  
"What the hell is _in_ those spells?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Everything," I smiled as I answered. " _Confuso fatina, ignos et ignos mortifina."_ The loose water Jeff had released gathered and surged down the street, sending more Travelers back. " _Vados!"_ I shouted and the water wave exploded outward, catching the Travelers.  
  
_"Phasmatos Incendia!"_ Jeff shouted, and the Travelers in the front of the group caught on fire. Vicki flashed forward, almost too quick to see and grabbed a screaming Traveler before darting back with him.  
  
I placed my hand on the man's head. _"Somnus,"_ I whispered. Jeff put out the fires on the prisoner with a look before he picked me up.  
  
"Vicki, Echo." Jeff responded, using the code word for regrouping outside the vampire tomb. Vicki nodded and grabbed the prisoner. After that it was another rush of air for me.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"So that's an Original's talisman?" Vicki asked as we sat around the torch.  
  
"Pretty much," Jeff answered.  
  
"So like, vampires and witches came at the same time, with the first witch being the mother of the first vampires?" Vicki asked.  
  
Jeff shook his head. "No, she's just called the Original Witch because she's the witch of the Originals. Original is almost a family name or something."  
  
"Weird." Vicki shrugged. "So what's it do, besides help call her up?"  
  
"Talismans help to channel power. When a witch is dead, it helps channel power from the Other Side and gives them a way to access the real world. When a witch is alive, a talisman can be used for a lot of things, but mostly it helps prevent the whole nosebleed stuff where you damage your body when you channel too much. Modern witches usually hide their talismans under clothing to make them harder to grab, though in the past it could be a symbol of power and status." I dangled the talisman at Vicki, who reached out her hand.  
  
"Ow!" Vicki shouted.  
  
"Lauren, be nice to the vampire. Vicki, there's vervain in the necklace." Jeff said dryly. "Okay, cloaking spell complete, should hold until the reset." He looked up. "Sure about this, fearless leader?"  
  
"Nope, but Travelers will be trying to block our escape tonight, and they probably prepared for something like this. If we hide out until tomorrow they will probably think we got by them already and have their guard down." I nodded to Jeff, who stepped back as I began to chant up the boundary spell to hopefully prevent any sneak attacks while we slept.  
  
"So, if we're not sure about escaping, isn't it a good idea to talk to this woman now, not later?" Vicki asked. Jeff and I paused and looked at each other, though I kept chanting the boundary incantation as I did so.  
  
"Well, we're not going to trust her _more_ when we leave and if we wait until we're a bit farther away," Jeff mused. "And if we get attacked tonight, having already made contact is handy."  
  
I finished my spell. "Downside, we're tired and coming off of battle stress. We won't be able to eat or get a goodnight's sleep until after we bolt."  
  
"I'll take a better chance at survival over a better negotiating position to be honest," Jeff pointed out.  
  
"Okay." I nodded. "If we're going to call forth a thousand year old crazy person we should definitely do it in a dark tomb that is only not full of vampires because we're in the middle of a giant spell." I held up my hand. "Ready?"  
  
"Huh." Jeff nodded. "Okay." He took my hand and we held the necklace in between us. Our voices joined together in the rhythm of the spell:  
  
" _Phasmatos Manex, Un Domo Hax, Fero Adiuvex."_  
  
It was done. I felt a small wind as the ghost was summoned from the Other Side into a plane where she could walk.  
  
Esther looked fairly normal. The witch was wearing a white dress and looked mildly surprised as she glanced around.  
  
"Hey." Vicki waved. Esther turned and stared at the young vampire.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?" She asked calmly.  
  
"Long story short? We can help you kill your kids and we would like your help," Jeff started. I repressed my strong need to roll my eyes.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
"So you say in this vision that Nicklaus had a _child_?" Esther looked very interested as Jeff rambled his edited, censored summary of what he called "The Vampire Diaries" under the false pretense of psychic visions.  
  
"Hope, yes. You know that Dahlia would come for her, take her, abuse her. I don't know if this means you don't want the kid to be born or not. I mean, burying a ghost so she can join the Ancestors is one thing, and not letting her exist at all is really different. I am willing to help either way to be honest; she's your granddaughter and you know Dahlia."  
  
"She took Hope in the vision." Esther shook her head, looking horrified.  
  
"Actually, she lost." Esther looked up, clearly gobsmacked. "Klaus got the better of her by pulling off some sadistic and brutal moves against the rest of the family and anyone else in reach to convince Dahlia he was on her side. Then he used a dagger Kol made to put them both in suspended animation for long enough..." Jeff paused. "You know, the details may not especially matter."  
  
"She can't lose. She can't die." Esther said. "What do you think you have to gain from these lies?"  
  
"She absolutely can. Blood of the witch who broke her heart, soil from her homeland, ash of her viking oppressors. I don't know why they work, but they do. That's your blood and Mikael's ashes, though there's other ashes Elijah and Klaus found and used up first."  
  
Esther closed her eyes. I could almost see the mystical connections and correspondences running through her head.  
  
"See, this is what working with him is _always like,"_ Vicki explained. "He will blabber on about nothing for half an hour and then you realize he just mentioned two deep dark family secrets of your best friends and how to become an invincible superhero."  
  
Esther reached out her hand and touched Jeff's shoulder, and she winced.  
  
" _What. Are. You_?" The Original Witch asked, her voice full of mixed emotion.  
  
"You know, to be honest, I don't know." Jeff closed his eyes. "Or I don't believe what I know. Last thing I remember some creepy demon cannibal lady was biting me, next thing I knew I was in a forest near Lauren."  
  
_Don't say anymore. Don't say anymore!_ I thought at him, but telepathy wasn't actually one of _my_ powers.  
  
"What is it you want, _exactly_?" Esther asked. "I am a spirit, trapped on the Other Side."  
  
"For now, yes. You can do a lot more to impact the real world than we know how to do. Also, this talisman should help," Jeff answered. "I want out of my current realm and back onto Earth. Once there, neutralizing the Originals is a priority for _anyone_ who has to share a world with them. Before that, surviving the night is my top priority."  
  
"I do not know the spell to get you out, and if I did then it would doubtlessly require far more than a single witch," Esther said.  
  
"Blood of a witch, power used for the spell, Ascendant crystal used to make the spell. Lauren could do the spell, and so could you, and Lauren's blood would definitely work; probably yours as well. The tricky bit is the crystal, which we believed to be in the hands of a group Lauren calls the Coven of the Thirteen."  
  
Esther straightened at that. "The Empty Chair is working against you?"  
  
"Yes," I answered. "Hillard tried to take my body. This prison was made to stop that."  
  
"I understand." Esther nodded. She paused for a moment, looking at me. "But why would they be after a Siphoner?"  
  
"I'm not one of the Gemini Coven's outcasts. I have my own power. If they could possess my body, they could combine the skills of a witch and a Siphoner with the experience of whoever was using my body."  
  
"If you'd killed yourself they would have just brought you back," Esther nodded. "Why are you working to get back to them?"  
  
"Mostly because I want to murder them. Their coven has been doing this for centuries, and they attacked my family. Also, I feel much more comfortable brawling with them if Jeff's with me," I answered. "That comfort level would be raised even more if you helped." I looked at her, feeling just a bit of hope.  
  
Esther nodded carefully and her silence weighed on us as she thought. "I have a spell I will teach you to get passed the Travelers," She announced.  
  
"Thank you." Jeff smiled.  
  
"The incantation is _Phasmatos apparaitre apparebis_." Esther began. "Now here's what you need to do..."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Wyld**  
  
Teleportation requires immense power. Esther's energy reserves were less than mine, but the girl had been on the Other Side for a thousand years and been one of the greatest witches ever before that, so she knew a Nature powered shortcut based on what I was pretty sure counted as a leyline from the Town Square to a place around 60 miles to the south. Esther's explanation for why this would work was that the local werewolves used to worship in the Town Square and in the village that had since been replaced with a mall that had shut down in the mid 90s. I nodded along, not quite wanting to admit I was mystified as to why this made teleportation easier.  
  
When we rolled out and Esther vanished back to the Other Side I asked Lauren point blank if Esther had talked us into a trap.  
  
"The magical theory is sound and I can sense an energy point there." Lauren explained. "I say we still wait to get out until morning, and then go to the Town Square; see if it works; run if it doesn't."  
  
"I'm fine with that," Vicki answered.  
  
I marked a lose circle in the dirt. "We can expect Travelers in trucks on all the main roads. Do we really need to teleport? Seems we could just go through the woods. I mean, teleportation is shiny, but..." I shrugged.  
  
"I think we should." Lauren shook her head thoughtfully. "The Travelers have been here for days. It would be easy to set up a small coven in a choke point, make an attraction spell or the right kind of hex to draw us into a trap without realizing it. Travelers have used spells like that a lot in the past and while it wouldn't be perfect, it would be pretty likely to catch us if we are running out of town. There are lots of rivers, roads, hard areas to get through, I think the Travelers would be more likely to catch us then you think, with the right magical preparation."  
  
"Okay." I nod. "I don't remember anything like that, but the Travelers were only a big deal for something like half a season, so it makes sense they'd have abilities I didn't know about."  
  
"So we've got maybe another 18 hours before the world resets, which is probably our best chance to make the break for it." I frowned. "What exactly do we _do_ until then?  
  
"I got some pills when I burned down the drug store," Vicki offered.  
  
"Huh." I nodded. "There's _no_ way that an immortal filled with blood lust and superpowers like the two of us could be any danger if we were intoxicated on opioids."  
  
"Yes, Vicki," Lauren raised her hand. "He _does_ have to be a dick about it."  
  
"So my ideas are down to watching Lauren get high and practicing mind compulsion on Vicki, I claimed. As I hoped the girls rallied against me as a common enemy, giving us half an hour of happily arguing before that subsided.  
  
"So I know why me," Vicki said, looking up at the ceiling. "First supernatural death of someone you 'knew' from the show. But still, why me?"  
  
I considered why I brought her into this at all. "I liked you," I admitted. "You were the first major kill, yes, but you were sultry and complicated and proactive. I know that Nina Dobrev, that's Elena's actress on the show, said you were the death that she found the most sad. She and your actress, Kayla something, were even roommates at the time."  
  
"What, really?" Vicki smiled at the ceiling. "I wouldn't have guessed that."  
  
"Later on she moved in with Jenna's actress, and no idea who her name was off the top of my head. I presume your actress went on and did something else. Then of course that actress died, I mean her character did, so I don't know what her roommate situation was after that."  
  
"Maybe I should be an actress. I clearly have the looks for it, and you say the show was even good!" Vicki laughed.  
  
"The other thing I know about successful actresses is that they tend to be super well connected, super smart, start super young, and probably a couple of those at once before they get anywhere. Then again, I tend to follow the young hot ones, so for all I know plenty break-in in their 30s and 40s after years of work. But like, it's not enough to be hot and skilled, you have to be lucky or make your own luck." I paused. "Who am I kidding? You can just compel them. I bet the industry is full of talented vampires. Looking at a lot of stars they barely look like they aged in ten or twenty years, though maybe in thirty or forty you'd have dug your own grave on hiding what you are."  
  
"That might be doomed anyway," Lauren suggested. "The government doesn't want people to be able to switch identities at all, do they? Another couple decades of finger printing and DNA databases and birth certificates and you might need to be hiding out in the Amazon to fly under the radar."  
  
"That's depressing." Vicki sighed.  
  
"I'll see what I can do. I don't exactly expect I'd want to _hide_ my superpowers from the world for long. I'm too invulnerable for that."  
  
"God, _don't do that_." Lauren shook her head. "Do _not_ go around messing it up for everybody else."  
  
"What, the Mystic Falls Council is going to murder you?" I rolled my eyes. "Or the weird university with vampire hunters that exists for some reason? New Orleans organized crime?"  
  
"You get too well known, people come after you. Werewolves were everywhere, in North America once, and then vampires hunted them nearly to extinction. Witches use blood sacrifice to control a country, and they end up burned by rioting peasants. Nobody lasts long if everyone knows what they can do, people get scared or jealous and go after you."  
  
"True Immortal witch here. What do I have to be scared of?" I asked.  
  
"You really ask that when the Travelers captured you so easily? You think living a life in Hollywood as a celebrity with superpowers would go any better?" Lauren asked. "Hint, it won't."  
  
"Alright." I sighed. "No masquerade breaking, then."  
  
"Maybe like, we find some village in South America and run it as kings?" Vicki suggested flippantly.  
  
"No running water," I pointed out.  
  
Vicki shuddered. "Okay. Point taken."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
We were awake shortly before the reset, waiting. Over in the corner was the corpse of the Traveler we'd hoped to interrogate; I had lost control a few hours before, Vicki and I shared the kill.  
  
"Barrier went down. Time to scram," Lauren announced.. I jumped up. Vicki had collected the pack of magical items and containers and held it in her hands.  
  
"Vodux," I muttered and the tomb door broke open. No Travelers met us, which was a good sign. I jumped out of the hole leading to the tomb door and took a look around with the night lit by fire; the lack of screams suggested no ambush was here. "Clear!" I shouted down. Vicki jumped up after me, Lauren in one hand.  
  
"Three, two, one, go." We hit blur speed, heading towards the town square. Mystic Falls surrounded us, a now familiar blur of houses and cars that had a comforting tendency to return to normal no matter how often we smashed the place apart for work or for play. To my surprise there was a new line of camping tents right in the clearing.  
  
"Huh?" Vicki asked. "How'd that happen?"  
  
"They're enchanted," Lauren explained. "This could be-" I felt my shoulder tear with a bullet wound. "-bad."  
  
I raised my hand. " _Phasmatos Incendia!"_ The tents began to burn one after another as my hand and anger moved in a line. I heard screams, and then Lauren raised her hand.  
  
"Spell to lock us in just hit," She explained. "Travelers caught in the magic fire chose to burn themselves to power it."  
  
"Crap?" I asked.  
  
"Nah," Lauren smiled. "Cover me." She pointed at the ground at the edge of the square and I brought up a wall of fire. Lauren's hand began to glow red as she started to Siphon the power.  
  
I heard a sickening crack. Lauren collapsed, bleeding from her neck.  
  
"Vicki!" I shouted, and she was there, biting her wrist open and shoving it in Lauren's mouth. Then Vicki screamed as another bullet hit her.  
  
"FUCK! That one hurts. Why the hell..." Vicki asked. I ripped it out with a flash of telekinesis and examined it as more began to hit. "Wood," I explained. "The town has a stock of them." I closed my eyes. " _Phasmatos invisique."_ I gave my wrist to Vicki, who bit down to get some of my blood for the healing.  
  
"What was that?" Vicki asked when she had finished drinking.  
  
"Invisibility spell. I don't have a bullet-proof spell." I put my hand to Lauren's neck, feeling the pulse. "Can you hear me?" More bullets cracked around us, and Lauren didn't react. _"Fuck_."  
  
I stood up and began shouting an incantation. " _Espirimus Paratis_!" I flung my arms wildly, but the area of potential snipers was too big for me to take down this fast, without channeling anything useful or having some kind of boundary. If I had stopped any of them I didn't notice a difference in the shots.  
  
Explosions, fire, telekinesis, water, and everything else wasn't enough to stop the Travelers before they grouped up, and then I felt my eyes go dark. It was their unconsciousness spell, again.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I woke up to blinding pain. I groaned, feeling the familiar copper in my mouth of blood, either mine or Vicki's.  
  
Looking around I saw that the Traveler I killed, apparently Markos, was sitting nearby. I was in a Mystic Falls hospital bed.  
  
"You're awake." He said, looking grim. I began to call my power to pulp his brain. "Don't." Markos said softly. "I am the only reason you are alive right now."  
  
"Explain _fast_." I said. Evidence implied this was true, as he could have slit my throat in my sleep.  
  
"You left the key to this world in the hands of the _witches_ known as the Coven of the Thirteen," Markos started.  
  
"Hillard snatched the Ascendant out of my hand as I finished the ritual," I corrected the man.  
  
"Ah." Markos nodded. "This confirms that the Predators can access this world."  
  
"That matters to you?" I asked. "Why?"  
  
"Right now I can eat, drink, make love, do all the things the Other Side was built to prevent by the First Traitor."  
  
"Predators." I paused. "They can get in here, and you're _witches_ now."  
  
"We have magic back! That does not make us like _you_!" Markos flared. I had touched a nerve.  
  
"Fair enough." I shrugged. "You know the Thirteen want me."  
  
"They do," Markos nodded. "In a few months they are coming for you with all their terrible power. They have spoken to the living of my people, and they were very clear about what we are expected to do."  
  
"They contacted your followers." I frowned. "If they did that, and got a message to you, they have a threat."  
  
"They do." Markos nodded. "They have never warred with my people before. If they took us on _now_ it would be _unpleasant_."  
  
"You know you can't keep me prisoner, not with my powers." I frowned. "You can't keep me prisoner, but you can't kill me because the Thirteen would start to hurt you, and you don't have the balls to stand up to them."  
  
"I don't _want_ to kill you. I will if we have no better alternative. If we give you up then the Thirteen will start using us to do their dirty work, threatening my people's ancestors whenever they need muscle."  
  
"You're offering me a deal." I said slowly.  
  
"If we know where you are, we know where the one with the key will be when she arrives. You will help us take the key, and we help you stop the member of the Coven you despise."  
  
"Our interests do align." I nodded. "What about my friends?"  
  
Markos looked taken aback. "You have mutilated me, you have killed my people, you have stolen the most important object to my people that exists. You are _very_ lucky to be alive, little witch."  
  
"You staked Vicki," I said. "That is unfortunate, but I can get her back. I want Jeff."  
  
"You are not serious." Markos gave me a look of pure disgust.  
  
"I help you make a tether to the Other Side without Jeff as an anchor. I give you the Ascendant. You let me, Vicki, Jeff and any other ghost we end up working with use the Ascendant to get home. _Then_ you get the key to this realm and we're _gone_. For the next few months I am on your side, working to take down the Coven of the Thirteen. You don't have to look over your shoulder for betrayal every time I twitch my nose. We _both_ get what we want." I flashed my smile at the Traveler leader. "Deal?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Wyld**  
  
I woke to a flash of agonizing pain. Everything about me hurt. My skin felt like it was on fire, my eyes felt like nails hammered into my head. I felt like I had been impaled from the tip of my tongue right down my core until the end of my gut.  
  
"The famous Jeffry." I heard the words even though I didn't process them until later. I lunged at it. "Nah nah nah." The voice mocked as two extremely strong hands fixed me against the wall. "No munchin' on _much_ hotter people then you."  
  
"He'd kill _me_ like this." More nonsense sounds filled the room as I buckled under the stress of my new position. Every move felt like I was tearing myself apart. "What's your alternative?"  
  
"I was thinking we'd just toss him out of a truck into a kindergarten." I struggled ineffectively. "Relax! We've got enough bee-negative in the basement cooler for your boyfriend."  
  
"That's miles away. You haven't seen what he can do the moment he remembers what he can do. I'd seriously open a vein first." Something about the voice made me struggle harder.  
  
"Feisty!" Strong hands flipped me around. "But not enough." I felt another brief pain as my neck twisted before there was nothing else for me to feel.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I woke to heaven. Salt and copper filled my mouth. Pain dissolved all across my body as a feeling of cold vigor stretched through it. I moved my neck and saw a thin plastic that was between me and _more_. I lunged like a snake and the bag burst against my head. I struggled into the bloody mess and felt myself swallow the bag in a thrill of consumption. I paused for a moment, panting, my head blank of anything but the feeling of satisfaction, and then I felt another plastic bag against my cheek. I had a long way to go.  
  
I finally regained my senses as I lay in the cooler of blood bags. Last I remembered the Travelers had beaten me, right? No, after that there had been Damon breaking my neck. Yes, it was definitely Ian Something-Or-Other's face, and unless I was back home and things had changed _dramatically_ or Silas gave his brother true immortality without my hearing about it there was exactly one suspect for my rescue.  
  
I was still a witch, and I found the lock on the outside of the cooler in seconds and flung it open.  
  
"You need to shower." Lauren told me. She was holding an electronic stop watch. "Seventeen minutes sixteen seconds. I thought you'd be faster."  
  
"What happened?" I asked.  
  
"Well, I wouldn't say _clusterfuck_ , but it was definitely a clusterfuck," Lauren answered. "I didn't even need to betray the Travelers; they mostly _drowned_. Turns out you can divert a river incredibly fast if you're one of the Coven of the Thirteen."  
  
"I'd think..." I digested the information. "Well, I guess that makes sense, but still. I'd ask how you made it out alive, but I'm pretty sure that'd be an insult."  
  
Lauren snorted. "I told the idiots that they could hang a protection spell off of a sire line, but none of them trusted me on tha. It's like..." She trailed off, a look of frustration on her face. "You'd think they'd have learned how not to behave like children with centuries on the Other Side, but not one of them could understand me when I tried to teach them magical theory. One of them literally said I was touched by demons when I tried to show them how to channel the _ocean_." She shook her head.  
  
"How long was I out?" I asked curiously.  
  
"It's April 1st, but we are _not_ playing tricks on risk of fire and explosions." Lauren smiled.  
  
"Huh." I processes for a minute. "We lost a chance to get out of here, didn't we?"  
  
"Among the _many other_ problems of you being cursed into unconsciousness for half a year, you're right."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I looked around the Salvatore Boarding House's common room. Vicki was sitting on the table wearing biker leathers and polishing a strangely shaped blade that was either a very long knife or a somewhat short sword. Esther, the Original Witch was sitting on the couch looking unhappy and reading a grimoire. Damon stood near the door, his arms crossed and looking bored. Lauren entered the room with a vaguely swarthy looking woman who looked to be in her early sixties and a vaguely familiar black man who was probably some character from the show I couldn't remember off the top of my head.  
  
"Damon, Jonas and Lavinia, I would like to officially introduce you to Jeff." Lauren hardly looked older, but her confidence seemed a bit worn down compared to anytime I'd known her. It was weird to think I had been "asleep" longer than we had been companions.  
  
"Howdy." I smiled at the group. "So what are we doing, exactly?"  
  
"Some of us want to be alive again." Damon said, sounding annoyed. "Even if you bitchy monsters _aren't_ dead you want back into the same town we do." He pointed at me and Lauren with two fingers on one hand for "bitchy monsters."  
  
"What unites all of us is that we can help each other," The black man who had followed Lauren into the room explained. "Lauren says that you are good for favors, and we all need something she says that you can help with."  
  
I paused. "That makes sense." I said noncommittally. "I do remember that trying to make a deal with the wrong people is what got me into the mess that you all pulled me out of, so I'd like to hear exactly what I am expected to do."  
  
"Oh shut up. We don't need to betray any of these people. We bring Damon and Vicki back to life, save Jonas's daughter from Klaus, stop the Originals for Esther, and build an anchor to give the Travelers this dimension for Lavinia." Lauren shrugged.  
  
"...I approve of all of those things, but I kind of have to ask how that helps us get to Earth?" I asked carefully.  
  
"A witch on Earth, a witch in the Other Side, and a witch in the Prison World." Lauren announced. "If we are looking for it, we will know when the prison is inspected and we will know where they are." She points to Esther. "She anchors the middle, Jonas's son helps us with Earth and Jonas anchors the spell to search. When they've found the inspector, one of us teleports the other to attack. This will actually work."  
  
I frowned at Lauren. "How are you sure? The witches we're fighting, the last thing I heard about them is that they curb-stomped the guys that beat us so hard we couldn't even escape."  
  
Vicki laughed out loud. "Man, we _sucked_ back then." She raised her new blade. "I'm with 'ya, but someone won't just go with staying here forever." Vicki aimed a good-natured glare at Lauren, who was looking somewhat less willing to roll with my concerns.  
  
"We ran in like _morons_ against the Travelers. I've spent months figuring out the spells we need. Come on, just work with me. If we lose next round you get to tell me 'I told you so' but I don't see an alternative to my plan if we want to breakout. Do you?"  
  
I sighed. "Maybe if I have six months to think about it, but sure, I trust you." I turned to the others. "Anything else I should know?"  
  
"My children are circling Mystic Falls like birds of prey," Esther answered.  
  
"Just Klaus and Elijah, or did one of the others get the dagger yanked out?" I asked.  
  
"The what now?" Damon looked annoyed and confused.  
  
"Oh, Klaus has magic daggers he uses on his siblings. It puts them in a kind of suspended animation until the dagger is pulled out of the heart. Finn has had one in him for most of his life, while Kol gets it about half the time because Klaus thinks he's a little shit, and Rebekah gets it sometimes because Klaus is a control freak over her. I think at some point Klaus told Elijah he dumped all their siblings' bodies into the ocean and Elijah swore revenge, but Klaus didn't actually do that and is going to bring this up at the last minute if Elijah actually comes close to killing Klaus." I sighed as I rambled out the Mikaelson family drama.  
  
Esther looked a bit stunned at my casual explanation, but nodded when Damon gave her a curious look.  
  
Vicki looked proud. "Good job!" She fired in my direction.  
  
"Oh just kiss already." Damon rolled his eyes at us.  
  
"Really?" Lauren frowned at Vicki. "Boundaries, Vicki."  
  
"Blame Damon," Vicki answered.  
  
"Always a good call," I nodded at her.  
  
"I assume there's an angsty Dawson's Creek reason for you three being all Betty and Veronica instead of normal people," Damon stated more than asked.  
  
"I think there's a long rambling story about bacon and why you don't jump into relationships right after you save each others lives or end up stuck together in a strange dimension," I replied defensively.  
  
Everyone stared.  
  
"Bacon?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Okay, maybe I am referencing a TV show called _iCarly_ and I realize that no one else has any clue of getting it, but you don't jump into things when you are full of 'I-saved-your-life' mode because you can't be sure if it's real or not. Win someone with an extravagant gift of bacon, and the feelings may fade when the bacon does."  
  
"You know, when we pulled you out of that spell prison I thought you'd be all 'let's win this' and 'go team' but I am _totally convinced_ this guy is important and worth saving." Damon's voice filled the room with a deep sarcasm.  
  
"You want to live again?" I asked, knowing I was about to make a mistake and not being able to care.  
  
"Duh. Coeds to snack on, Stephanie Meyer books to trash, giving Stefan a life of unending misery, life is _awesome_." Damon smiled.  
  
"No." I answered. "You want to be _alive_ again. Human."  
  
I watched Damon stiffen.  
  
"There's a cure." I continued. "It's on some weird island in Canada. Every prison world replicates it, so we've got at least three doses. There's limitations, but I am sure that we can work around them."  
  
Lauren looked mildly annoyed, Vicki looked happy, and the rest simply stared.  
  
"What, are you _offering me humanity_?" Damon growled.  
  
"Yes, if I can fit it into my busy schedule. But I want to be very clear about something; _I know my shit_. I know that you want to be human more than anything. Maybe I'm not as mature and wise as _you_ after your long and storied life, but I am sure I can contribute." I grinned at Damon.  
  
"You know if you try and kill anyone you're off the team," Vicki said smugly as Damon stood there. I had never seen Vicki look this happy when she wasn't eating. Probably something to do with my helping to show up the man who turned her into a vampire.  
  
Damon paused, looking thoughtful. "He doesn't know why I'm here." He said to Lauren. I paused. "Control your boyfriend." Damon walked out of the room.  
  
I looked at Lauren curiously. She sighed. "Don't fuck with Damon, please. There are some things I really should have told you about."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat next to Jeff, thinking. It had been so long since he had been awake, and there was so much he needed to know.  
  
"What took so long, exactly?" Jeff asked quietly. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but I was out for a long time."  
  
"The Travelers accepted my help against the Thirteen. It was..." I trailed off. "...unbelievably hard," I finished. "I hated everyone so much. You can't even imagine it. I wanted to burn off every smug gypsy face I saw, and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I could get one over on the bastards that killed my parents. It didn't even work, either." I went silent.  
  
"What do you mean?" Jeff asked quietly.  
  
"It was like a bomb went off. Early last month they came in to inspect the prison, or one of them did, or one of their agents, and then it was quiet for nearly two weeks. Everything I'd done to prepare was left hanging in the air. Spells the Travelers did ran out. We thought they'd left, and we had reason to with entire caravans of Travelers being torched in Australia and the Balkans. Then one day, out of what felt like nowhere, the water in the town lake rolled over us like a bowling ball. I woke up when my spell brought me back to find a muddy wasteland."  
  
"Wow." Jeff looked impressed. "That's one hell of a spell."  
  
I leaned against Jeff, fuming. "I fulfilled my end of the bargain. I'd done everything I could to help them. I'd turned runes and rocks into a standing portal between here and the Other Side. I did too much for them, I think. They knew that you were the only leverage they had left, after I survived assassinations from traitors on their side and proved I could break their strongest spells."  
  
"I admit, teaming up with them was my worst idea." Jeff smiled.  
  
I started to ramble, letting out the tension that had built up over months. "I came so close, I think. I know I came close, actually. I found a pile of ash by the lake before the world reset. If I'd been just a bit more careful with my protections, or if the Travelers had listened to me and done the protection spells I used on myself, then we could have caught them before they died and drained their power or cursed them too badly for them to keep active. The spells I prepared trapped them as they threw the lake at me, and killed them when they tried to escape. I hurt them however much I could with lost bodies, but not enough."  
  
"I didn't even know there was anyone in this world who _could_ throw a lake at someone." Jeff patted my back. "Any victory over that is, well, amazing. I bet it's unprecedented."  
  
"I knew they'd done massive hydrokinetic works before. They'd drowned tens of thousands of people in China and the Netherlands in a blood sacrifice. I thought they had to work with somewhere that naturally flooded like that, assumed the fight would be curses and voodoo dolls. I fucked up and we're no closer to getting out than we were when the Travelers got you." I was not crying, but it was a near thing. "I'm so sorry."  
  
"I really thought I was dead, Lauren. Dead or worse. I couldn't imagine a way out of that mess, and you fought through after no one else was left standing. God you're amazing." Jeff laughed.  
  
"I didn't even find you for weeks," I pointed out, smiling a little, again. "Cloaking spell, but the coffin they used was in the vampire tomb of all places. I should have checked there, but it was Damon who found you."  
  
"Huh." Jeff nodded. "What's the deal with him, anyway?"  
  
"I couldn't stand to bring in more Travelers. Lavinia, she and a few others survived the attack by themselves, but I'm not helping more get back in. I knew Damon was..." I paused. "Not reliable, but I could make a deal with him. Life on Earth for helping me." I swallowed. "That would have been fine, but he found something I needed. He bargained with it, and his side isn't filled yet."  
  
Jeff frowned. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You sent Damon after a group called the Augustine Society. You told me they did research on vampires and the occult. Damon's old enemies had a book on haunting, and notes on research. They understood how to make a hole from in the Other Side. Damon knows how, but he won't tell me until he's alive."  
  
"A hole?" Jeff asked. "Why is that so important? Isn't that like, a consequence of necromancy?  
  
"Not like Augustine's holes. They could rip a hole so strong a ghost could fall through and never been seen again."  
  
"The Thirteen," Jeff said quietly. "Body hopping ghosts. I mean, you brought up curses and turning them into vampires, but that's a lot bigger, isn't it?"  
  
I nodded. "Sure, maybe the strongest coven ever can't break my curses or pull a vampire's ghost out of its body and put it into a new witch, or maybe I could get them all at once, Maybe they will lose 50 IQ points because they are faced with a plucky blond." I shook my head.  
  
"Damon knows how to kill your worst enemies." Jeff was smiling. "He won't tell _you_ how until the deal is fulfilled." Then he released a scoff suddenly and loudly, making my heart leap.  
  
"What are you thinking?" I asked.  
  
"I'm thinking I'm _psychic_." Jeff grinned.  
  
My mouth opened and nothing came out.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I sat with Vicki as she explained her idea of what had happened while Jeff was "out of it."  
  
"Lauren thought for sure they'd staked me, but turns out they thought it was easier to leave me tied up then to find another source of vamp blood. They figured out some spell that stopped an area from looping back so they could put me in cement which _sucked_ but after about a month they dug me out for Lauren because of 'good behavior' or something, or maybe they were scared because she survived two separate poisonings and some kind of death curse. I think that put them off giving her _you_ because she did _this_ to me." Vicki pulled back her shirt and revealed a set of simple tattoos I had done with Esther's guidance.  
  
"Huh." Jeff looked at them. "I'm guessing magic?"  
  
"Sire line spell," I explained. "Niklaus sired a crazy woman named Mary Porter, who is still alive in Kansas. Mary sired a woman, Rose, in the mid 1400s, and her blood turned Katerina Petrova. Katherine made Damon, who went and forced Vicki to turn. Amazingly enough, all of those vampires were alive when I checked, and I was able to give Vicki a bit of a boost."  
  
"Suck it, Damon!" Vicki laughed. "Drawing power from him feels great. He says it gives him a headache, but Kathy doesn't notice anything so he might just lying."  
  
"Well, most of the power's not directly from any of them. They're more the channel. The source is in here." I tapped Vicki's belly. "The moonstone that binds Niklaus's curse. So much strength suppressed and wasted, so why not set it on a path to help someone I actually liked?" I paused. "I implanted the moonstone in Vicki's belly."  
  
"Hurt like a bitch, too." Vicki smiled. "Worth it just to see the looks on the smug bastard Micky's face when he realized he couldn't put me down."  
  
"Impressive." Jeff nodded. "I can see why they'd be worried about giving you another ally if you did _that_ with a _metaphysically_ ordinary vampire." Jeff patted Vicki's hand. "It is my right to deny you the chance to be indignant that calling you ordinary _in general_ would have given you."  
  
I watched Vicki pout with some amusement. "I thought the spell would give out when Damon died, but I guess being a ghost was enough to channel the power through him. If Klaus breaks the curse with the real moonstone back on Earth I expect that Super-Vicki will be over, but Elijah seems to be plotting against him, and I don't think Klaus is that smart, so I'm guessing you're going to say he only broke the curse because of 'plot' in the show?"  
  
Jeff sighed deeply. "Nah, it was stupider than that. Well actually no, _Elijah_ was stupider than that. You'd think a thousand year old Original would learn some sense, but nope. His scheme involves breaking the curse and _then_ killing Klaus while he turns for the first time. Of course with that brilliant strategy all Klaus had to do was reveal he hadn't buried Rebekah at sea but was stuffing her in a basement or something, and then Elijah was making deals with Klaus and not carrying out his plan. Do we have anyone Earth side to try and sort _that_ out?"  
  
I paused, trying to process all of _that_. "Stefan and Elena are working with Bonnie to listen to Damon or Vicki when I project them to the Other Side, but Elena was trying to get herself killed last time I checked and Lexi had Stefan locked in a New York basement. I don't think Bonnie will call us up unless those two can guilt her into it."  
  
"What about your brother?" Jeff asked Vicki.  
  
Vicki looked pained. "Matt doesn't even know I'm dead. Elena wouldn't let Bonnie tell him. He thinks I'm off on a world class bender or street walking in L.A. or whatever else he rants about to Caroline when he gets drunk. He doesn't even know vampires exist yet!" Vicki shuddered. "At least Jeremy's tried to find me."  
  
"Huh." Jeff shrugged. "In the show they found your corpse by now."  
  
"You said Jeremy became some kind of Buffy ripoff, too. He's a vampire now," Vicki laughed. "That chick, Anna, turned him before Lexi and Stefan staked her in some stupid fight about where Kathy was hiding." Vicki smiled. "Elena is _not_ happy that he remembers I died and Damon made Jeremy forget. He even tried to bail with Lexi, but Elena did a big guilt trip on Bonnie to make her promise not to give Jeremy a daylight ring until he agreed to stay."  
  
"I don't even know how she keeps track of this stuff." I shook my head. "You said you watched like, four seasons of this stuff?"  
  
"Something like that." Jeff shrugged. "I claim the right to not have to defend my tastes, even if they suck. Just be glad there isn't a _Hannah Montana_ jumpchain."  
  
"He's joking, right?" Vicki asked. "Please tell me he's joking."  
  
I studied Jeff's face. "He's actually not," I answered. "We have a _lot_ to talk about before we get any more serious."  
  
Jeff grinned, looking embarrassed. "Yes we do."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Wyld**  
  
Vicki looked really annoyed as I described the _iCarly_ plot she had demanded out of me. The two of us were on a mission to hunt down the exact location of Alaric Saltzman when the time loop started and, if we had any luck, drag his magic ring back with us for Lauren and Esther to play with. Vicki was driving without a license, possessing a confidence I did not and a refusal to try and run at vamp speed for hundreds of miles if there was an alternative. Vicki had also taken a joy in stealing Elena's car for the mission which I honestly did not understand.  
  
"I would never date a boy because of bacon once a month. Nobody would," She scowled and ran over something in the road without slowing down.  
  
"One, this was a sitcom on Nickelodeon, so realism is not to be expected. Two, Sam _really_ liked bacon. Three, it was _really good bacon_. Four, the point is that it _didn't_ work. The grand gesture or gift isn't enough, because loving the gift doesn't mean you love the person. It's like, there's this theory on some tumblr blog I read about how a lot of people have a secret contract in their heads with other people. 'I do the dishes and you will be happy with me.' 'I open the door for girls and they will notice me.' 'If I do my son's laundry he will try his hardest at school.' But of course since this contract is all in your head, it doesn't _work_. Girls don't notice every boy who holds the door for them, roommates don't always get happy when dishes are done, kids might've been okay with doing their own laundry since they hate school."  
  
Vicki grunted, then paused. "Oh. So like, you do things because you _want to_ do them, not because you get something out of it. I put out to Tyler thinking it'd mean he'd be nice to me, but Tyler's a dick and isn't going to change if I put out."  
  
"I'm not saying a grand gesture shouldn't be done. I'm all for them. But I don't want to lead Lauren on. We're stuck in the same purgatory and she saved my life. I owe her a lot, and I like her a lot, and we might be soulmates, but I want all that to stand by itself. If I marry Lauren it's because she's the _kind of person_ who saves her friends, not because she saved _me_. If Tyler treats you well it's because he's the kind of person who treats people well if he gets to know them."  
  
"You and Lauren are so weird." Vicki sighed. "But for you, kissing Lauren right now would be treating her like crap. So you'll drag this out and annoy everyone because you're stupid. Got it." Vicki rolled her eyes.  
  
"Yes, because I am stupid. Also because I'm _immortal_ if I am lucky. The mistakes I make with Lauren might stick with me for a thousand years. If I hurt her then that wound might never heal. If we're soulmates, serious soulmates, then the worst thing I can ever do is screw this up."  
  
"So you have a secret contact that if you try your hardest not to screw up with Lauren, she'll never, ever be pissed at you?" Vicki gave me an evil smile.  
  
"Um." I sighed. "I _like_ girls. I don't _know_ girls. This is my best guess for making it up as I go along. I know I'm gonna mess this up, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't do my best, right?"  
  
"I'd tell you to chill the fuck out, but I'm not sure if anyone is less chill than Lauren, so maybe this is the right call." Vicki shrugged. "Don't even _try_ to date Caroline or anyone remotely normal."  
  
I laughed out loud. "Vicki. Normal was _never_ on the table."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
Alaric's ring was not _exactly_ where he would have left it, as he didn't take it off, but the magical material had resonated with Lauren's Gemini spell and it _kind of_ existed in the bar Alaric had been sitting in. Something about being an actively worn object had made the magic run over and around the copy instead of making a normal clean break. The whole thing was annoyingly fuzzy to me, but I'd ripped the magical ring out of its buzzing position in mid air. I had no idea how the spell had done that, or what it meant, so I just filed it away in my head for future reference.  
  
Vicki was rambling about Jeremy, now. "Of course Elena doesn't think _her_ brother has to be staked for killing Aimee Bradley in a parking lot because he's so new and out of control, but she'll defend Stefan up and down for staking _me_ to protect _herself_ when I was just turned _against my will_. Her brother _chose_ to be a vampire. This proves that Elena is a bitch," Vicki concluded.  
  
"Yes dear," I answered, examining Alaric's Gilbert Ring and wondering about plot contrivances being baked into the world I was stuck in. Was there some form of Julie Plec or L.J. Smith out there inserting their view of human interactions to make Mystic Falls spiral out of control; perhaps instead, these personalities simply meant to clash, creating chaos out of the brief and temporary order of the town.  
  
"You're treating me like a mom," Vicki lashed out, clearly annoyed. "Put away the ring and talk to me. I'm on two hours sleep and five doughnut shop coffee raids, so you're keeping me awake."  
  
I smiled. "I'd say I missed this, but I wasn't exactly _missing_ things that way in Traveler prison."  
  
"Oh, you missed me," Vicki insisted. "Deep in your dreams you hardly stopped missing me."  
  
"Well in _my_ dreams you and Lauren _were_ making out in Princess Leia outfits," I assured her. Vicki laughed so hard she crashed Elena's car, but a vampire and an immortal were fortunate enough not to care and simply look for a new one.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
I was asleep. Instead of experiencing the pleasant fantasy I had suggested to Vicki, I was dreaming about losing an argument on Sufficient Velocity and then dreaming about pouting. One moment my mind was fixed on a dark computer screen and the next I found myself in a comfortable cafe.  
  
"Please excuse the abruptness, but you are a remarkably hard person to contact." I heard a pleasant, controlled accent and focused my attention on the blond man sitting across from me at the small table.  
  
"Hello there, Elijah," I greeted him. I felt myself "wake up" or more accurately, become lucid in the dream spell. "I'd been hoping to get in touch with you sooner, but my own circumstances are rather constrained.  
  
"You are quite the little psychic spy, aren't you?" Elijah sipped his imaginary coffee that I was pretty sure hadn't existed until he wanted it for effect.  
  
"You could say that," I answered. "You must have gone through some trouble to make sure Luka could do this spell correctly."  
  
"I have found the boy is a quick learner." Elijah said, looking at me with a controlled curiosity. "I like to have factors in my plans under control, and so far the town of Mystic Falls has been the antithesis of that desire. You are merely one of the forces I must reckon with."  
  
"If you want a deal, I admit I have already made several that I am loathe to break. I have plans of my own for this town, though I am all for your own particular goals succeeding. The plan is to bond Luka to the mass grave of witches, and then attack Klaus at his moment of greatest weakness, correct?"  
  
"You are well-informed. I take it you have met with the ghost of Jonas. He was a good man." Elijah smiled softly. "If you know him, then you know I am a man of honor. What would it take to stop you from manipulating this town from the Other Side?"  
  
I considered my answer carefully. "Until the spell is broken? I would need tangible evidence that you could assist me in breaking out of my current prison, which lies somewhat beyond the Other Side, or that you have something of significant value to trade. I have allies who care for people in Mystic Falls."  
  
"That would be sufficient on your part. What exactly do you need from me?" Elijah's look was cold and predatory.  
  
"When the Coven of the Thirteen next enter this prison, I need you to ensure that I can capture the member holding an artifact called the Ascendant, and preferably at least one of the coven. I simply need to be sure that I am not working against my current allies and that you are offering me a better chance of escape than my current schemes, which are quite limited." I pointedly avoided mentioning that his insane, murderous mother was among my allies.  
  
"Fascinating," Elijah answered. "How did you manage to make such a powerful enemy as the Empty Chair? I was under the impression your emergence was quite recent."  
  
"When I arrived in my current state I encountered a woman who was hunted by the Thirteen. This woman had created the dimension I was trapped in, but the Ascendant used to navigate out of this dimension had been stolen from her. The two of us have been largely confined to a kind of mirror dimension ever since."  
  
"This town can produce the strangest of predicaments," Elijah marveled. Your request poses great difficulty, but you have my word I will see if I can assist you. Understand that this assistance is conditional on not working against me."  
  
I laughed, to Elijah's subtle but clear confusion. "Oh no you don't, Elijah Mikaelson. My offer was to stop interfering _after_ I saw some evidence that you were helpful."  
  
Elijah grimaced. "You know I am a man of honor. If I say I will help you then I will."  
  
I answered. "I know you are a schemer, a trickster and a liar who is trying to murder his own brother. I have _seen_ what your idea of honor is, and while you will obey the letter of an agreement you will break the spirit if it suits you."  
  
Elijah looked furious. "You are a difficult man to reason with and in no position to make demands."  
  
"Hm. Okay, let us make a very specific deal, then." I paused, thinking. "I tell you several secrets about your family, and you check to see if they are true. If they are true, then you will meet me again for a good faith negotiation. Until then, we have no deal about helping each other."  
  
"Amusing. Alright, I accept _these_ terms." Elijah smiled.  
  
"Alright. Klaus killed your mother, not Mikael. Rebekah arranged for Mikael to find you in New Orleans." I paused, weighing Original secrets and how easy they would be to check. "Celeste did not die, or at least not as people usually do, and instead has moved between bodies until the present day as a spirit, if you count her as a family member?" I looked at Elijah, who was holding back shock at my claims. "If Celeste is not your family, then let's go with one of _your_ secrets, or your mother's. When you were newly turned, Tatia was still alive despite the blood stolen from her for your own transformation. In a fit of blood lust, your mother suppressed the memory inside your head. I presume that one can be checked by a proper witch."  
  
"These claims are outrageous!" Elijah stood up. "Furthermore, most of them are impossible to verify!"  
  
"Look around New Orleans for an old crazy witch making prophecies, and that's Celeste's current host body. Marcel was in on Rebekah's scheme and can be compelled to tell the truth if you drain him of vervain. Klaus, well, there's some werewolf runes about him killing his mother, but that one is admittedly harder to verify unless you speak with your brother. I have told no lies that I am aware of, Elijah. You gave me your word you would investigate these claims, did you not?"  
  
"Very well." Elijah gave me a glare that might've withered me in another life, but I felt fresh and strong and immortal. "We have nothing further to discuss, for now."  
  
I woke up from the dream, every piece of it blaring properly into my lucid mind as the spell disconnected. I jerked awake.  
  
"Huh?" Lauren woke up in bed next to me, telekinesis and battle magic clearly on her mind.  
  
"Dream contact, nothing to worry about," I answered. I paused, with Lauren looking at me expectantly.  
  
As the fog of sleep lifted and the intensity of the dream meeting receded, I noticed that I was in bed with Lauren.  
  
"Huh." I looked at her.  
  
"What?" Lauren asked. "Get on with it."  
  
"Okay." I answered, and began to explain my contact with the Original. I had to admit, Elijah was the part of this situation I _least_ wanted to discuss.


	9. Chapter 9

**Lauren**  
  
"I am not _addicted_ to vampire blood!" I argued. "It isn't fun to drink it or anything. There's no high!"  
  
"You're totally a blood junkie," Vicki insisted happily. "Whenever you wake up you act like you're in pain until you drink tea with my blood in it."  
  
"I like _tea_ , okay. Tea, vervain, vampire blood, it wakes me up like a cup of coffee," I explained hotly.  
  
"Yeah, like no one's addicted to _that_ ," Vicki snorted. "You didn't get up like that at _all_ before we put that into your morning routine, and now you want three cups a day!"  
  
"It's called being scared of dying," I retorted. "Well, dying and not coming back," I corrected. "Vampire blood can leave the system quickly, and who knows when something shitty could happen. So when I wake up, when I go to bed, and halfway through the day. Come on, self-preservation is not being an addict!"  
  
"You are _not_ done with vamp blood six hours later and you aren't shouting at the bathroom door when I'm five minutes late because you're _cautious_ ," Vicki laughed.  
  
"Come on," I looked around the table. "Damon, be serious, is vampire blood addiction a _thing_?"  
  
"Can't say," Damon shrugged. "I mean girls always come back, but there's other reasons." He grinned.  
  
"You _do_ mindrape everyone you date," Jeff pointed out. He munched the breakfast pot roast he had made for us. I was unsure if he thought a breakfast pot roast was some kind of exchange for hooking up yesterday, or if some other strange chain of logic and insomnia had led to that decision.  
  
Vicki raised her hand. "He does," She answered viciously.  
  
"Dude, it's not _rape_." Damon glared. "They love it."  
  
Jeff looked very annoyed. "You mean Caroline? I've literally seen you let her flee almost to the door, trying not to wake you up, and then you rushed after her. You let her physically resist, and _then_ you fed on her before you use mind control to make her like you."  
  
"You killed my friends and made me party about it," Vicki muttered, glaring at Damon.  
  
"Okay, okay, so I'm a bad guy." Damon smiled and raised his hands. "But I'm on best behavior. Haven't killed anyone since I died!"  
  
"Can we stake him yet?" Vicki asked. "Please! I'll say you aren't a junkie!"  
  
"I made a deal," I sighed and patted Vicki's head. "No murdering people who haven't..." I paused. "I was going to say 'fucked with us' but well, that's wrong."  
  
"I get it. Breaking deals with assholes means assholes don't work with you. That isn't a workable strategy in this dimension." Jeff added. I felt his touch in my mind and eyed an illusion of Jeff that stood to the side of the real one. "Got the secrets, though," He said cheerfully and pointed at Damon's head.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"Finally!" Vicki shouted. I sat in the car as she drove, only a little worried for my safety. "Didn't he say he was really fat before he got sucked into the television, though?"  
  
"He spent half an hour talking about obesity science once," I muttered. "He says he never looked as fat as he was, but his 'new' body never had a lot of the physical issues he had as a kid."  
  
"Oh man, that hare lip stuff." Vicki shuddered theatrically. "I don't know why he felt we needed pics of that."  
  
"He seemed under the impression that his 'soulmate' would share his interests." I paused. "He seems to have figured out I'm a girl since then. I know he finds creepy shit cool, but I have some limits."  
  
Vicki laughed hard. "Did he share anything _else_ that I have to know when you hooked up?"  
  
"Um," I paused. "Nothing really. Oh, he pried Damon's Augustine nonsense out of his head, but you still can't kill Damon."  
  
"You made a deal with me, first," Vicki pouted.  
  
"If that deal had been to kill Damon that would be a good point. Don't worry. There's no way we're letting him hurt anyone else. Worst case I think Jeff can compel him on that, and I'd rather just stake Damon's ass."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I entered Elijah's dream. The fuming Original would likely react better to me than Jeff at the moment, though I felt he had made some better calls than usual.  
  
"Hello, Elijah," I smiled, manifesting a beach for our meeting.  
  
"Interesting," Elijah nodded at me. "You adapted that spell quickly."  
  
"Oh no, your friend Jonas is helping me directly," I explained. "Friend" might be a loose term, but it felt appropriate under the circumstances.  
  
"Ah, Dr. Martin's loss was quite unfortunate. I expected Katerina to have the sense to avoid her doppelganger, but it seems she will never stop taking matters into her own hands." Elijah smiled softly.  
  
"I don't think there's any chance her plan would have actually worked," I shrugged. "Wrapping the whole ritual up for him in a little bow might stop his _anger_ , but I doubt it would sate his blood lust."  
  
"I think it was an attempted apology to me, actually. She was unaware of my vendetta against my brother, and so hoped to make contact with me and give me everything required for the ritual at once. With my protection she may have stood a chance as Klaus was distracted." Elijah frowned. "I was unaware Jonas knew of Katerina's full plans when she killed him."  
  
"Jonas is not the source of my information. Did you think _he_ knew about Rebekah and Marcel's scheme, or that he had uncovered the secret of Tatia's or Esther's deaths?"  
  
Elijah frowned deeply. "If it was not Jonas, then I take it you are speaking with my departed mother? I had assumed she had found peace on the Other Side long ago."  
  
"Good guess." I smiled at Elijah. "We didn't need _her_ for that. If you want to know where we get our information, we need to start negotiating on even terms."  
  
Elijah stood still for a moment as I tapped my foot. "I confirmed two of the facts that your companion gave to me."Marcel admitted to Rebekah's scheme to summon our father to New Orleans, though I can hardly disagree with their reasoning. Luka was able to..." I saw weakness in his face. "...help me uncover the secret of Tatia's death."  
  
"I assure you the situations with Celeste and your mother are also accurate to the best of a knowledge source that has proven to be disturbingly reliable."  
  
"If I were to make a deal with you, I want to know what exactly you can offer me," Elijah answered seriously.  
  
I thought for a moment. "Klaus told you he buried your siblings at sea? I don't know _exactly_ where they are, but I could certainly help you recover your siblings if I was in the world with you. I could also bond with the concentrated power of the dead witches that you planned on having Jonas use for defeating Klaus. I am aware of the locations of several powerful artifacts and individuals that would be of interest to you and your siblings. Your father in particular is someone I could locate with only a little time and effort. I am also aware of a cure for immortality, and as such the powers and blood lust of a vampire, of which I believe three doses exist, though two of these doses would be much easier than the third for me to obtain. I am uncertain as to which personal goals you have besides the recovery of your family and defeat of your brother, so that is the best I can offer without more information. I offer power primarily because it is an _instrumental_ goal for anyone, as any other goal is supported through power."  
  
Elijah looked out to the sea I had crafted out of my memories. "I have been alive for a long time. I understand the value of cooperation, but I also understand that deception and betrayal are easy to find when the powerful negotiate. What assurances can I have that you will help me as much as you say, after I assist you in returning to Earth? Your companion was very clear that my word means little to him, so I must extend the same suspicions to you."  
  
I had hoped that Elijah's honor being put to question would make him eager to prove that his word mattered. This could be an unfortunate development.  
  
"My family was destroyed by the Coven of the Thirteen, so a hostage is largely impossible to come by. If information and power is insufficient to gain your trust, what are you expecting me to offer? You could snap my neck if I betray you, and with your powers I could never be safer on the run from an Original as your friend Katerina." That was probably a lie, but it would hopefully flatter his ego. "I am a witch, but by far the greatest power I have access to is the source of information. If that is proved unreliable, then I become little more influential than Sheila Bennett. I paused and thought for a moment.  
  
"For you, honor is by its nature an internal construct. You have your own rules, your image to bind you and give your life direction. Jeff does not trust you because you cannot be contained by anything outside of yourself. If you break the spirit of an agreement while keeping to its letter, who could object? The only people who match your power are Mikael and Klaus, men who are on their best days less reasonable than you on your worst. Jeff is wary, but I believe that you want to be known for your honor, and so you will be as good as your word." I flattered Elijah as best I could.  
  
"You say there is a 'cure' for immortality? Where is it located? That could be a potent bargaining chip or weapon for anyone." Elijah said thoughtfully.  
  
"Unfortunately the most accessible is buried in a remote island in Canada. I apologize if this sounds like a cop out, but I can sincerely state that I could get through its mystical protections and that it would be incredibly difficult for you to do so in any time span shorter than years." I considered _very_ carefully. "I can offer you one more show of good faith before we make a lasting agreement, if you accept it."  
  
"Oh?" Elijah sounded amused, now. "Something more tangible than this 'cure' or the secrets of my past?"  
  
I thanked Jeff's memory for pop culture details in my head. "I would look on Wickery Bridge in this town. Due to a series of coincidences, the last wood of a White Oak tree is the sign that welcomes people to Mystic Falls. I believe that is the last of the wood in existence on Earth, besides the stake Mikael has hidden to use on Klaus."  
  
"A promising show of good faith," Elijah remarked, still sounding amused. "Of course you cannot prove a negative. There could be a stash of white oak that you plan to use for your own purposes. I appreciate the information, but that does not prove much about your sincerity."  
  
The truth was that I expected to use the White Oak in the Gemini Prison to fashion weapons, and of course I _was_ working with his mother on her plans to kill him, so it was a fair concern. "That is the best I can do," I sighed. "My cards are on the table. I help you recover your family and increase your power and status among them when they awaken. In exchange, I want your assistance in transitioning to the dimension that you inhabit, ideally through harming my enemies in the Coven of the Thirteen. Without a baseline of trust it may be impossible to accomplish this trade even though we both stand to gain far more than we could through any other cooperation."  
  
"I see." Elijah picked a shell up from the beach. "It does seem we are at an impasse. As of now my moves against Klaus are highly time sensitive, and you do not trust me enough to help me defeat him first before I help you."  
  
I wondered how the Mikaelsons had survived their own stupidity even with Esther's spell. "If that was the problem, I literally just gave you what you needed for free. White Oak kills Originals. Use it on Klaus."  
  
"Ah, the White Oak you have offered me. There are several holes in this plan, though I could possibly surmount them. Klaus has become even more paranoid than usual since the 1920s, and I have not seen him in decades. Making contact with him and delivering a killing blow is likely difficult. Furthermore, he is consistently stronger than me due to what is left of his werewolf nature, and as such I may not be able to kill him even with the advantage of White Oak. I believe the best course of action is likely to continue my plan, but to use the White Oak in addition to my attempt to bond Luka to the power of the dead witches."  
  
"That is honestly quite reasonable." I nodded. "While we have no formal agreement, I hope you will work with me in the hopes of recovering your siblings after Klaus is dead."  
  
"There is very little that I can imagine could be of a higher priority than restoring Kol and Rebekah to life. Even Finn may be in a better mood without Klaus or Mikael to interfere. I assure you that I would want little more than to have some semblance of my family restored to me with none of them attempting to destroy each other." Elijah gave a warm smile.  
  
I trusted Elijah in that moment, and I felt briefly sick about my plan to kill him, even if we both could understand how it was not truly a betrayal.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I entered the room Esther had taken. It was well after midnight, but she slept the strangest hours; I guessed because there was no sleep on the Other Side. I watched the blonde witch reading one of the grimoirs that Jonas had found.  
  
"Hello," I said softly and she looked up.  
  
"You are having trouble sleeping, now," She commented.  
  
"I thought I'd join the club, yeah." I joked. "I spoke with Elijah. I thought you would want to know. We are getting closer to getting out, I think."  
  
"Good," Esther said. "Every day my children live is a day someone else dies."  
  
"Grim but true," I nodded. "Even if Elijah just drained a blood bag, it just takes Marcel's kingdom operating to kill." I suppressed a shudder at what Jeff and Esther had both told me, that to kill one Original was to destroy all vampires descended from them.  
  
"You shouldn't raise your vampire friend," Esther told me. "She will always be a stain on the world. Until she dies her blood will carry my sin forward. If she and Damon return to life, people will die."  
  
"I will do my best to make sure that doesn't happen," I answered sincerely. "There are three doses of the cure, maybe more if there's another Gemini Coven Prison. We only need two for Amara and Silas."  
  
"So you will let Stefan die, as you have no deal with him. You will force the cure down Damon's throat. Lexie will die when Rebekah is staked, no matter that Jeff thinks she is a good woman. The doppleganger's brother will collapse when Niklaus does. You can accept all that for our deal, but you will still raise your friend Victoria and risk unleashing another plague onto the world."  
  
"I'll feed her from my wrist," I assured Esther. "Jeff has that artifact of endless blood, and they can share. There are hospitals stocked with blood. We can control it."  
  
The Original Witch sat in her chair. "And when her brother, Mathew lies dying, Victoria will work for the greater good and refuse to feed him blood? None of your vampires will lose control again? You are a servant of nature. You have to know the price for their immortality will always be innocent deaths. I have regretted what I did to my children for a thousand years. You cannot make that mistake."  
  
I stood there for a moment, gathering myself. "Your children were warriors," I said. In my head the word was that they were murderers. "Jeff was raised in a time of peace, and so was Vicki. Your children were raised for war, my friends can live in peace."  
  
"What about you?" Esther looked at me coldly. "You are in love, and so is he. You are angrier and more scared than any of my children were when I made my mistake. He will want you to live forever."  
  
I swallowed. I considered how many people I had killed when I fought the Travelers, and how much I wanted to kill the Thirteen. I thought of Jeff, floating the idea that I could live forever.  
  
I walked out of the room, wishing that Esther and I looked less alike. She was not _my_ future.  
  
**Wyld**  
  
Dream communication was far more convenient than astral projection to the Other Side.  
  
"It is great fun, isn't it?" Elijah asked. "You are young and feel you are immortal. Eternal life seems to stretch out forever. You have power enough to feel invincible and all the consequences can fall on _other_ people, can't they?"  
  
"I assume you are going to explain why eternal life and superpowers actually suck?" I asked.  
  
"Oh, hardly enough to take the alternative." Elijah smiled. "Finn was hardly my role model in our first century. I do believe that immortals start with a certain arrogance that fades over the first few hundred years."  
  
" _Fades_?" I smiled. "I've seen your brother, and your father." I paused and remembered the rest of Elijah's family. "And Kol, and probably you and Finn to be honest. I think if Rebekah wasn't constantly put down on due to her femininity she would be of the same mold, or maybe it's just Klaus keeping her down."  
  
"You think Niklaus is more my brother than Kol and Finn? Would you mind explaining why?" Elijah asked curiously.  
  
"Klaus is many things, and he consumes more attention than anyone else. If someone asked me who your brother was I would answer 'Klaus' without thinking," I answered honestly.  
  
"A fair description of my family." Elijah gave me a small smile. "Enough with pleasantries; what do you wish to discuss?"  
  
"Honestly? I wanted your advice on a matter of honor." I explained.  
  
Elijah gazed impassively. "Do you seek to win me over with flattery?"  
  
"Honestly, I don't have a lot of friends in here who could help. Yes, I hoped that a cord of sympathy might make us less likely to feud, but I would actually like your advice on the matter. How much have you learned about the recent deaths on Mystic Falls and surrounding areas?"  
  
"Damon Salvatore and Logan Fell appear to have each gone into a frenzy of blood lust and several vampires escaped the tomb under the church. Katerina then arrived, though she has been restrained by her standards as she lay low."  
  
"I can interact with the ghosts of the Other Side, and can bring them to a semblance of life within my own prison. I have made a set of deals, as has Lauren, and the conflicting debts are beginning to conflict," I explained.  
  
"Ah. Perhaps you should be more careful with your words? It is a lesson I learned over my centuries." Elijah looked amused.  
  
"Damon died due to infection with a weapon from a society of vampire hunters. It made him compulsively seek out vampire blood or starve to death. Before his infection he raided the Augustine library and mind controlled several of their agents into giving him information. In particular, he discovered a weapon that can send a ghost from the Other Side into what is either peace, oblivion or some kind of hell dimension. He said he would give the information to Lauren once he was brought back to life. Lauren brought him into our prison to help us. After a while, I discovered the information on my own."  
  
"Ah." Elijah shrugged. "Was the wording that you made a deal to bring him to life if he helped you, or if he gave you that information? If he has been helping you, but proved less helpful than you expected, that is hardly his fault."  
  
"He's been a pain in the neck and a jerk. Also was responsible for one of our other allies being turned into a vampire and then dying shortly afterward. We like that ally a lot more than him."  
  
"If he is impolite in your own dimension, then he is simply abusing your hospitality. You are within your rights to demand he behave or leave." Elijah looked bored. "Please do not trouble me with trivial matters like this in the future. I am a busy man."  
  
"Worth a shot." I shrugged. "You were asleep, anyway." I returned to my body with a snap and jerked awake.  
  
Lauren was on a chair nearby the couch I'd slept on for the message. "How went the charm offensive?"  
  
"Worse than I hoped, but not too badly." I answered.  
  
"Did he give any good advice?" Lauren winked at me.  
  
"Kind of, actually." I smiled.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"You're telling me to _play nice_?" Damon put finger quotes around the last two words.  
  
"Yes. That is exactly what I want," I explained. "The fact is, we are giving you comfortable accommodations and you are making them less pleasant for everyone else. You can either go and live in another part of the prison realm, return to the Other Side, or be nicer to everyone until we need your help or can reward you for your cooperation."  
  
"Get the stick out of your butt." Damon glared at me.  
  
"I _like_ the stick up my butt. I like having some sense of stability in a realm where every day repeats and a small cabal of people are squatting together. Perhaps I do need to loosen up, but if so-"  
  
Damon cut me off. "You absolutely do. How about this for a deal; give me oh, a weekend, and if you liked it, you shut up about this. If you don't, I go and check out New York for a few weeks."  
  
"Huh." I thought for a moment. "Nothing up the nose and nothing that breaks the skin." I paused. " _Anyone's_ skin. Also, we stay within reach if something comes up that needs my attention." I considered carefully. "Final rule: I don't make the call on if you stay; Lauren and Vicki do."  
  
"Wow." Damon shook his head. "Those chicks have you whipped good, but I'm up for a challenge."  
  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"So," Damon asked. "How are you suddenly good at pool?"  
  
"Game theory and telepathy," I explained. "I read your mind and played against what you wanted to do. Before my current transformation I'd have _sucked_ at pool. I had no hand-eye coordination to speak of."  
  
"Really. Hand eye coordination goes up for whatever you are? I never really noticed it for the vamp version." Damon shrugged. "Though come to think of it, yeah, I've caught stuff that nobody could have caught without vampire powers."  
  
"I think it might be more healing than anything else for me so far, but that raises even further questions. I was born with various um, call them mid line issues. Cleft lip and pallet, gross stuff. I figured out that while I didn't grow any fangs, I grew _new_ teeth that weren't naturally in my mouth. Others seem to have grown."  
  
"Huh." Damon frowned. "Does that mean if I prey on kids with braces and heal them up, suddenly girls stop calling each other 'metal mouth' and move on to new insults?"  
  
"Damon." I smiled. "Think for a moment. Lexi has a smile that many people would kill for and she's something like 300 years old. Unless she was a witch than she almost certainly had missing teeth or broken teeth or blackened teeth or any number of other teeth issues before she turned. Let's say Lexi was one in a million, but what about Katherine? Anna, Pearl, _none_ of the ancient vampires have tooth decay. Like, if this was a TV show it'd just be because the _actors_ were modern people, but it's a really strong pattern from a fairly broad source."  
  
"You said it raises further questions. What exactly has your strange little mind started digging up?" Damon looked thoughtfully at the pool cues.  
  
"Well, where does this template come from? It can't just supercharge natural processes. It can't even just _work_ through natural processes, as babies are born with all the teeth they will ever have. Poke out eyes and they don't grow back for a human, but do for a vampire. There has to be some template for vampire blood to do its thing. Where is vampire blood getting that information? When Esther called on evil spirits for her magic did they go to medical school in Hell? Are spirits following around every vampire, working on the healing out of some kind of contract?"  
  
"Vicki says you used to be really fat, too." Damon winked.  
  
"Fair cop. I told her that. If you're obese you don't usually _feel_ fat, so I didn't really think about it at first, but whatever disconnect in my brain that thought I needed to be fat is gone, and so is a lot of mass. I don't know if transition into vampire would cure most people of being obese or not. Heck, what about Tay-Sachs or some other horrible disease you're born with? If seasonal depression comes from a deficiency of something, would vampire blood cure _that_? What about brain damage from lead?"  
  
"So what, you want to start selling vampire blood at CVS?" Damon frowned. "I _like_ being a secret; adds to my mystique."  
  
"I am unsure. Lauren seems to think that it does _not_ turn out well when witches or vampires try to live in public. Werewolves _did_ live in public for centuries, until Mikael started killing them. I don't really want to gamble everything on the idea that I can go to the FBI and talk to them about Klaus, and you can't tell me you don't know the stories about what could happen to minorities with superpowers; you know about the X-Men."  
  
"I may have caught the movie." Damon grinned. "Heavy handed Nazi metaphors and hot teens standing in for Jews or gay people."  
  
"Pretty much. Also, I suck blood, so even if a hypothetical person like me showed up with my powers, I either admit to something really creepy or I keep a creepy secret until the Washington Post tells everyone."  
  
"Augustine wasn't asking those questions. It was all about limb regrowth, cancer, and trying to make cures for death in their notes." Damon added thoughtfully. "You know, I'd kind of want to see what you'd _do_ with vampire blood and medical tests."  
  
"I don't exactly plan to lock you or Vicki up in a basement and torture you guys to see if vampires feel pain. Being a vampire is still dangerous to everyone around you, so trying to cure death for everyone would _probably_ kill millions of people."  
  
"Man, you haven't lived through the 20th century. _Everything_ kills millions of people. Would you give up fast cars, warm houses, fireproofing and bacon?" Damon picked up one of the 8 balls and looked at it.  
  
"So is that part of your 'eating people is okay' justification?" I paused at Damon's frown. "I'm going to need one myself, after all."  
  
"You want a _justification_? Look at Stefan. He can rack up my entire kill count in a bad _week_. Unless you can toss away your magic ring and roll over into the sun this is what you have to do if you're a vampire..." Damon suddenly tossed the ball at me with incredible speed. I felt the flash of pain, already diminishing. "...and Esther thinks you're more like a god."  
  
"I said no breaking the skin," I pointed out, digging ball fragments out of the side of my head.  
  
"Proving a point. I'd be down for half an hour. Stefan can take out Mona Ray. What can _you_ do if you're all you're cracked up to be." Damon looked serious.  
  
"Eye-Dee-Kay, I go and eat Maine?" I finished pulling the fragments out and dusted off my hands.  
  
"You care about Maine, right?" Damon rolled his eyes. "Or at least not slitting open that little Sabrina-The-Twenty-Something-Hard-Ass?"  
  
"Of course!" I shouted, letting out some of my rising frustration.  
  
"You don't need a _justification_ for not going loco. You can't happy thoughts your way out of it. You can't reason with it. You gotta eat." Damon tossed me the pool cue.  
  
I swung the pool cue thoughtfully. "You're afraid I'll turn out like Stefan if I can't figure out how to relax about being a psychopath?"  
  
"You're almost as new as the babe who started wearing leather pants when you showed up and my ticket to real TiVo and college cheerleaders. Lauren thinks she can control monsters, make us into nice tame pets on a cute pink leash. She _can't_." Damon rapped his hand on the table. "You can choose not kill a a bratty toddler having a tantrum, you can spare the cute barista when you're starving, you can turn the other way when you hear a couple on a camping trip. Then, boom! You have a bad day, and you haven't fucked a girl who said no and beat her half to death, you've killed her and the toddler across the hall from her bedroom because you were still hungry and you've broke their dad's neck because he wouldn't stop screaming _and_ killed the mailman when he rang the doorbell!"  
  
I was silent for a minute, appalled by _everything_ Damon had just said. "What the fuck?"  
  
"You can't keep it down. You need to learn what it is like when you smell blood when you're tired _and_ can't stop being angry _and_ you broke your arm. You have to learn to hunt and how to let out tension bit by bit. Grab a coed when you're not that hungry, set a pattern, figure out what you can't stop thinking about and practice. That's the way. If you have habits around how you feed, if you know how to hurt someone for fun, you won't become a monster the first time you _like it_. The guilt won't build and build until you throw yourself into the woods to get away from it all and then bam, you've found a hiker, and the only thing you can think about is killing him. You can either be a bad person, or you can be a _Ripper_."  
  
"This, this is how you try and convince me you're a good guest?" I half-whispered.  
  
Damon laughed. "This is show you why you need me. I have a weekend to teach you that you _don't_ have control."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I sat across from Damon on Elena's bed. "So, Dark Sensei, what is your lesson plan?"  
  
"You don't feel pain, right?" Damon asked me.  
  
"Um, kind of? Doesn't _matter_ like pain should. If I think about it I feel it, and when I get a wound I react, but it's more like surprise."  
  
"So," Damon pulled out a small baggie. "First we have to make sure you react to _something_. So let's start with the fastest." He handed me a small canister. "Inhale that."  
  
"Huh." I paused for a moment. It couldn't kill me, so I snorted what Damon's mind told me was a "popper." I felt something at once, crashing into dizziness and being light-headed.  
  
"Good." Damon nodded. "This makes things easier." Damon pulled another baggie out. "Take this."  
  
"Take it _with_ this?" I started scratching frantically.  
  
"You. Can't. Die." Damon glared at me and I swallowed it. "Good boy." Damon pulled out another small spray can. "Put this in your mouth." Feeling trepidation, I did so. "One last thing." Damon grinned. "Don't bite me." He bit his wrist open.  
  
The smell of blood hit my mouth, which was suddenly _very_ dry. I began to dry heave as the world started blurring.  
  
Involuntarily I bit down hard on the can, releasing pepper spray.  
  
"Roofie's not kicking in yet." Damon leaned in. "We can taste just fine, so I thought that'd work. Come on, you're strong, right? You can go on a roller coaster with your girl, feel the wind in your hair, see her bleeding, and not bite. Right! It doesn't matter that half a dozen kids are screaming and the fat guy behind you dropped his barf bag."  
  
"Ghnnn." I choked on the pepper spray feeling dizzy and gasping. "Ghhhg." I tried to bolt to the bathroom, but tripped over my feet and gave out a mangled scream.  
  
Damon kicked me. "That's grabbing the waiter's neck after he tripped on a knife. Everyone sees! Everyone is screaming and an old lady is hitting you in the back." Damon then collapsed onto the bed and pointed at his mangled foot. "You did that without thinking, didn't you?" I hadn't even noticed. "That's a great reflex if someone has a stake. What's that reflex when a kid on a skateboard hits you?"  
  
I was on all fours and got into the bathroom, drinking from the tap. "Ahh..." It wasn't helping. Water wasn't good for pepper spray, was it? Or maybe it was.  
  
"There, there." Damon was a blur and right next to me. "Let me help you." He reached in my mouth and I felt a _rip_ as he pulled out my tongue. Instantly I felt relief, but not _much_ as there was still a lot of spray in my mouth and throat. I felt my mouth fill with a new tongue. Then the new tongue tasted my blood from the old tongue. Damon's bleeding hand was inches from my face.  
  
I lunged and bit.  
  
"This is _life_ ," Damon told me. "Your worst day in ten years, twenty! You were good for so long, but then you can't help it. You _hate_ me. You hate everything about me, don't you? You hate how I'm hotter than you, how I look at your girls, what I've done." Damon patted the back of my head as my teeth stayed glued to his wrist. "Get some sleep, kid. Tomorrow I'm going to show you how to _live_."


	10. Chapter 10

**Lauren**

I read a six month old Vogue as Vicki looked through MP3 players for her favorite songs.

"Damn it, L, don't tell me you never tried heavy metal?" Vicki frowned at me.. You can't tell me witches really go for some kind of hippy shit?"

"My parents kind of did. You're seventeen, what do you know about music?"

"The _only_ cool thing about being a druggie is the music. I mean, besides the drugs," Vicki explained. "Loud music is expected for the bad influences. Ooh, Iron Maiden!" Vicki held up one of the MP3 players in triumph. "Thank you miss..." She paused and looked at the back. "Caroline Forbes? Really? You're supposed to be a blonde!" She chided the MP3 player.

"Don't underestimate blondes," I assured Vicki. "My people are a proud and noble one."

"But Caroline is like, _really_ blonde," Vicki explained. "You have no idea just how blonde we're talking. This is shallow, bring your inner slut to the car wash, organize the decade dance blonde _You_ are cool witch blonde."

"I speak for the blood of Scandinavia and tell you not to fuck with the blondes. Before we decided on being nice, slutty and friendly we were the viking warriors who raided down into your helpless British ancestors." I paused. "Or well, wherever your ancestors were in Europe, I'm sure mine raided them."

"The Originals are _so_ not good for your ego." Vicki shook her head. "Okay, I want these five marked with that little squiggle to keep them from resetting."

"Be sure to plug them in every morning before power goes out." I smiled and pulled out a marker. "Also, there might be stupid DRM shit on them that kicks in after it can't log into the right servers, or maybe there will be absolutely no problems? I don't know how a computer will react to the time warping issues so expect error messages."

"Thanks!" Vicki beamed as I finished. "It was such a pain grabbing other people's shit from the same houses every day." She paused. "Also, I think Scottish and Irish ancestors, so vikings definitely hit them." She smiled devilishly. "That justifies my taking bloody revenge, right?"

"Oh no. Now that this comes up I discover an attitude of ignoring the past and reminding you of the cycle of violence. You must forgive your ancient blood enemies or else be forever doomed." I laughed.

"No fair. You make me a super vamp right after everyone stops threatening us, and now I can't use it for bloody revenge on the person who made me a super vamp." Vicki sighed dramatically.

I heard a knocking on the door. "Come in, Jonas," I said. The black man, the only person I'd ever met who considered himself a _warlock_ , walked in, looking slightly happier than usual.

"Hey, dude." Vicki looked up. "Are you Elijah's dead pet witch, or did I mess up again?"

Jonas Martin looked surprised that she'd addressed him, nodded at her, and looked to me. "I am bringing this back," He handed me the ring Emily Bennett had made for the Jonathan Gilbert. "This is a fascinating device. I spoke with Emily's spirit about its creation."

"Thanks." I spun the ring in my palm. "I'm glad Emily's speaking to you."

Jonas smiled again. "She really doesn't like you much."

"Bitch killed everyone who liked her. Makes sense she'd be weird." Vicki shrugged.

"Victoria," Jonas frowned. "You really shouldn't judge. It was a different time, and she was under enormous stress when she was alive."

"Bitch didn't stop vampires from killing people. She got all the vampires killed to stop them. Then she died, and the vampires she saved killed a ton of people. No matter how you look at it she was a hardcore fuck up."

I laughed. "She made this, though," I pointed at the ring. "One thing she could do right was magic. There's full covens that would take a year to make this even if they knew how. Emily made two of these things without anyone even noticing in about a month along with all her other side projects."

"She made them both together. She told Katherine it was a failed experiment in making vampires immune to wood," Jonas explained. "She actually gave a working version to Katherine."

"Really?" I perked up. "Where the hell did that end up?"

"She traded it for survival at some point, according to Emily." Jonas told me.

"Why are vampires weak to wood, anyway?" Vicki asked me curiously. "It's the weirdest weakness, too. I mean, we don't regenerate well when the wood's in, but it's not like it's better at cutting us, and when you pull it out we're fine. What's the point in such a shitty curse?"

"It's not a curse, actually," Jonas explained, either not realizing Vicki was talking to me or assuming he knew more than I did. "Not the way vervain or the sun is a curse. It is a consequence. The spell that sustains you is regenerating dead tissue, and wood is dead flesh. The spell doesn't realize you need to be revitalized."

"Huh." Vicki shrugged. "Weird."

"White Oak is different," I explained. "It kills the whole vampire at once, ends the spell. Nature cursed vampires against the best thing to use for immortality spells."

"Really?" Jonas looked at me curiously. "I was unaware White Oak had such properties. It was all gone before anything I have studied was written. I have only read speculation based on the ashes, which are transformed and largely depowered."

"Esther's grimoire talks about it. You should read it. The tree is naturally immortal, and even the smallest cutting can grow into a new tree. The older the tree the better. If you channel that life and that age, you can protect anything." I paused. "Even without much left, I could probably reproduce an immortality spell using the wood in the sign."

" _How_?" Jonas stared at me. "Even with Esther's grimoire, she used an immortal tree. The fragments left should be almost as weak as the ashes. It would only still kill Originals because of their own curse."

"Of course it's depowered. The properties can be restored with enough power, though." I argued.

"What kind of power..." Jonas shook his head. "Don't try to prove this to me by making that spell. I am convinced you're strong enough to do it."

"Yeah, Lauren. We all know you have the biggest dick in the room. We don't need it measured," Vicki giggled.

"I could do it," I pouted, mostly for Vicki's benefit. "Magic power, daylight, White Oak sawdust." I paused. "It would be easier with doppelganger blood or maybe Esther's blood? Yeah, we need something to sub in for Tatia's blood." I frowned. "Maybe Jeff's blood? We couldn't use it to sub in for Emily's artifacts. The reason Tatia's blood works isn't power, it's that it binds all the parts together..." I played with a strand of Vicki's hair as I pondered.

"Lauren, please cut out the nerd." Vicki said carefully. "We were having fun."

"Sure, but I have to nerd out later."

"Why?" Vicki asked sadly.

"I will leave you to this. I have much to discuss with Esther." Jonas said, and he left. I was happy he was gone.

"So, remember Jeff talking about how in his show and future, how Esther turned the protection ring's spell into a spell that made the White Oak Stake nearly indestructible and deserving of heavy capital letters? So I am doing something similar with the compass she made that tracks vampires. First I transform the spells on the watch and then I us the new device to break through whatever cloaking spells Klaus had his witches put on his family's coffins, and then we can find where the coffins are."

"That helps us how?" Vicki asked.

I decided to make it very clear in case Vicki got distracted. "Klaus is in hiding and on the move, so we can't find Esther's coffin otherwise. I think he lugs his whole dead family around because he's creepy, and Esther's friends put a spell on her coffin to protect it after she died so Klaus didn't burn it or eat it while angry. It's great for keeping the body around, but it means Esther also can't get _out_ if she enters her body and brings it back with magic. I need to siphon off the spell protecting Esther's coffin, then she gets into her preserved body and finally she starts helping us on Earth."

"You're trusting Esther a lot, there," Vicki pointed out.

"Huh." I nodded. "That's a good point."

"I mean, she's very manipulative and ruthless. We need eyes on the ground when she gets through, right?" Vicki sounded like she was leading up to something.

"Do you have an idea?" I asked, feeling a bit excited.

"We've got the bodies of three Originals next to Esther's, and you've said before you could put me in a convenient, available body if there was one around. Why not put me in Rebekah's body? I can keep watch on Esther and make sure you guys get out." Vicki's voice was low, hopeful, but subdued.

"Huh." I thought things over and pulled my own electronic grimoire out. I paged through my notes on Esther's possession spells, taken from her grimoire and Jeff's summary of episodes.

"Could it work?" Vicki asked.

"Esther would need to prepare the body and cast the spell," I mused. "It wouldn't be too hard I think, on a daggered Original."

"Daggered? Did I zone out when Jeff was rambling?" Vicki laughed.

"Probably." I smiled. "Ashes from the White Oak used on a magical dagger can kind of freeze Originals with poison. Their will is strong, as is their mental strength, but if they're asleep due to the dagger and there's no reason they should be able to resist."

"Why do we need Esther, then?" Vicki shrugged.

"I could do it, if I was there. I can't do it from this realm. You'd need a focus, maybe amaranth or a magical talisman. This is why we need Esther on the physical plane. There are a lot of spells based on going from one body to another. It's very dark magic, but it is too useful to ignore."

"How can there be a bunch of different ways to do the same spell?" Vicki was smiling.

I considered the best way to answer. "Well, I don't know everything there is to know about magic. But think of it like swimming. You have the butterfly, the dog paddle, the back stroke and different crawls. That's like the different styles of magic. Some styles are more taxing than others. Sometimes you don't use one arm because you are carrying someone, like how I don't always use incantations. A really good swimmer knows a bunch of styles naturally, and can use them in different conditions, while some people only know one. So say, if you want to possess someone, there are a lot of paths to, though some might almost always be better than others for you."

"Huh." Vicki nodded thoughtfully. "So it's like, if you can put in gestures, incantations, and stuff into it then you're swimming with your whole body, while just using an incantation would be kind of just kicking with your feet, which someone might do casually, but they won't swim their best that way."

"Exactly." I smiled. "If you have flippers, you might go faster. If you're a bad swimmer, you might feel safer with something to keep you floating. So that's a lot of magical tools in this analogy. Someone handicapped might be a better swimmer than most people even without all the skills, because they put in the effort and understand what they are doing. It's all very messy even if you can sense magic and channel properly, and a lot of knowledge has been lost. Sometimes you get something like the spell that pops a vampire's blood vessel, which probably comes from a tradition that no one fully remembers but was so useful it spread far. I'm a crazy mutant super-witch so I can learn to do things safely that most people can't do easily, and most witches you will meet won't have my skills."

"Crazy mutants are awesome." Vicki giggled, then she blushed. "You know I don't want to leave you, right?" "Like, I want to possess Rebekah to _help you_ , not to get away?"

"It's okay if you want to go home," I assured her. "Your family's still alive. I understand that you don't want to leave them."

"Matt needs me to watch his back. But Mom and Dad don't care. Lauren..." Vicki swallowed. "You know, when I was alive, I was treated like crap by most people. People looked through me like I wasn't there and the only people who hung out with me sucked." Vicki looked away. "The only person who wanted to screw me and didn't want me to be gone in the morning was Elena's kid brother, and that was kind of great, but still, he was _Elena's little brother_. And then, well, after the crappiest bit of my life, you and Jeff show up."

"They had no idea what they were missing." I assured her. "You're awesome."

"I know." Vicki smiled. " _You_ like me. Sparkly super witch and her crazy psychic boyfriend swoop in and act like I deserve all of your help, from superpowers to life to _food_. I owe you guys _big time_. I don't want you two stuck in weird Groundhog Day planet."

"Of course, Vicki." I stretched outward a bit. "You know _my_ life went to hell before I met Jeff, and then you. I went from boring normal life to horror film to destined soulmate drama in a couple days. You make me feel _normal_. I like helping you. I'll miss you if you go home for a while, but I trust you to help get me home."

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

I stalked the Other Side with Damon's ghost. The two of us were in Caroline's room, watching her go to bed.

"Sniff," Damon ordered, and I did so. From the Other Side I smelled a soft perfume in Caroline's hair. Candice Accola was the twenty something actress for the supposedly teenage Caroline. Candice and Caroline were beautiful women, blonde and bright and cute. Smelling Caroline's hair felt _good_.

"She smells nice," I admitted.

Damon smiled. "She really does."

"This is helping me, how?" I asked.

"You're learning," Damon explained. "This is just step one. You have to get comfortable with the stimulation. If the first time you smell someone good is in the wild, then you might bite. You should get used to it."

"Hm," I said out loud. "Who smells best? Should I sniff Elena and Katherine?"

Damon frowned. "Hey there, don't get on _my_ nerves if you want to learn. If Barbie's not enough for you we can check out Bonnie the Teenage Witch. Heck, can your crazy witch BS get us into Brittney Spears's bedroom?"

"It would take a while to find a connection, either an object connected to her or a place near her that I can transmit us to. It's probably not worth it if this is all about smell. It might help me from freaking out when meeting a celebrity for the first time. I'd rather _not_ kill Miley Cyrus if I meet her by surprise."

"Hannah Montana, really?" Damon frowned.

"Oh no. Miley _Stewart_ is Hannah Montana's secret identity. Miley _Cyrus_ is the actress of Miley. I believe the role was originally going to be Chloe or Zoe, but she was like twelve and having trouble keeping the names straight."

"Wait, does your psychic power actually include Miley Cyrus in your third eye?" Damon asked, sounding confused.

"Nope. Academic interest and poor taste in sitcoms." I smiled.

"Never bring this up again." Damon said flatly.

I grinned at Damon. "No promises."

"So, think your girlfriend would be pissed if you stalked Bombshell here into the shower?" Damon changed the subject. "See your first tits outside of porn so you don't freak out next time you get a woody?"

"I think Lauren would have the right to be pissed about that," I answered. "Maybe, _probably_ about this too. I mean, even the best girlfriend would be upset she didn't come with me even if she was okay in principle..." I trailed off.

"Hot tip, do _not_ invite your girlfriend to your training sessions. This is going to be you at your creepy worst so you _aren't_ like that with her."

**Lauren**

Jeff returned with Damon. Jeff was subdued, looking strained.

"Thoughts?" I asked Jeff.

"I think we need him," Jeff admitted.

"Why?" I asked.

Jeff looked down. "He might stop me from eating you. You or anyone else."

"Huh." I nodded. "Is he really the best person to help you with that?"

"Best I know we can get. Elijah or Lexi, maybe they'd be better. Damon is in control, he's just evil. That's more than I can say about _most_ vampires. He raises a lot of good points, and he _sounds_ like he knows his stuff. If we find a better option I will take it, but right now he is looking really good."

"If you think he can help you live with blood lust, that's easily worth tolerating him." I nodded.

"So how has it been without me?" Jeff asked.

"It's been productive," I explained. "We should be finding Esther's coffin today or tomorrow. Jonas spoke to Emily, and I think I am sure about the spell to turn a vampire detector into an Esther detector. Depending on where Klaus was hiding Esther's body we're looking at somewhere between tomorrow and a few days from now to get her up and active in the land of the living."

"Ooh." Jeff smiled. Then he kissed me. I let him. "That's great."

I giggled. "Oh, so Vicki had a thought about this. She wants to possess Rebekah's body once Esther is there. I think Vicki's right. We can't trust Esther completely, but if we had Vicki on Earth to watch her and help, well, that's different."

Jeff sat down, looking thoughtful. "If anyone goes it should be me, I think," He said. "I figured out how to transfer my spirit while keeping all of my psychic abilities, since Klaus had a witch do that for him in the show. I'd be stronger and be more likely to notice things she won't."

I sat next to Jeff. "I just got you back," I said, my voice going whiny and a bit plaintive.

"I know. I'll miss you if I go. But I think this is our best option if we want to get out, and if we want to beat the Thirteen. I want that for you. I want a future with _everything_ , especially for you."

"Making choices _sucks_." I frowned.

"If we fail, being here forever won't be so bad, if I'm with you. But you deserve more than roaming this repeating day." Jeff sounded very serious.

"You should go with Esther and Vicki." I sighed. "I want out of here."

"If Vicki comes with me, then who will look after you?" Jeff asked. "You're a great witch, but threats have come here before that needed physical power to fight. Damon doesn't really measure up."

"I'll think of something. Witches can live without constant supervision, you know."

[hr][/hr]

 

"I am ready for the spell," Esther told me. She had gathered a simple bowl of water and a candle for the spell, along with the Gilbert Watch. She had read my notes on the spell from Emily's grimoire and her own. I had also done some additions from the magical practice called Kemiya that had originated in Arabia and spread through the United States. With the two of us working together, that would be enough.

"We need to plan things out, first." I told her. "So, your coffin is with Rebekah's, Kol's and Finn's. That's three Original Vampires. I've been reading your grimoire on possession spells. Finn is depressed, and the other two won't help us. I think we put our people in at least Kol and Rebekah's bodies, maybe Finn's if you don't think you can control him."

Esther stood there, looking shocked. "What's the point? I can do anything you need on Earth."

"You're one witch. Three Originals is too much power for me to give up before we get home. Coven of the Thirteen dies first."

"You promised me we'd kill them." Esther glared. "There will _always_ be a reason to justify leaving them alive. As long as they do, vampires will be a scourge on mankind."

I agreed with them being a scourge, but pressed my argument. "The Thirteen are immortal body snatchers and a plague on all witches. We haven't ever _quite_ defined our deal. I want to be out of here and _safe_. Without me you're stuck on the Other Side. We play this to the end."

"Who do you even think should possess my children?" Esther frowned.

"Vicki, Jeff, and if we need to, Damon." I answered. "Jeff is non-negotiable. He won't rest until we're out. You _know_ he is scared of Klaus and Elijah. He won't fight to keep an Original body, either, as he likes his own just fine."

"Being indestructible does have certain advantages," Esther admitted. "Being an indestructible witch, yes, he won't want to stay inside my children. What of Vicki? Your empowerment spells are limited compared to what Rebekah offers."

"I can talk her down." I assured Esther. "If Damon breaks his word, then I'll kill him. Damon in an Original's body would be a scourge equal to Klaus or Mikael."

"No." Esther said. "Perhaps he is my son's equal, but not my husband's. Niklaus has a cruelty and intelligence that make him terrifying, but Mikael's hatred is worse than anything Damon could muster."

"Interesting. You think Mikael is worse than Klaus. By how much?" I asked.

"You would say Mikael is genocidal. He enjoys hunting and killing werewolves and vampires. He thinks every werewolf deserves to die for crimes against his honor. He is right to hunt vampires, as his mistakes helped bring them into the world, but he is motivated to that far more due to hoping they can help him find his children. He hates his children more than anything else, for defying him. He is implacable and cruel. Niklaus is wrathful and selfish, perhaps more dangerous, but Mikael is far more of a threat to the human race." Esther's short speech made me worry. Jeff had told me that he was fairly sure Mikael would be motivated to kill him due to "jumpchain drawbacks" when he rose.

"I can't let anyone like Damon have the power of an Original. I promise you that he will die if he refuses to give up an Original body." I nodded at her.

"You are still stuck here. How will you enforce that?" Esther asked. "What if Jeff fails?"

"Jeff won't fail. But worst case, Jeff in Kol's body can beat Damon in Finn's. I am _positive_ about that, due to the nature of Jeff's powers and what we can do to make sure he will be as capable as possible." I smiled.

"Last and least, what of Vicki? She is impulsive and her control over her blood lust is weak. How can you trust _her_ with that kind of power?"

"She's my friend," I answered. "I take onto my own soul the fact that people will die if we do this, but I do believe fewer will die with my plan than if we simply had those three of your children staked an hour after you rose from the dead."

"I understand," Esther said after a moment's silence. "It is a good plan. I worry that there will always be reasons to keep such powerful weapons that will emerge in time, and you will refuse to dispose of them when the time comes. Still, this is a fair deal."

"Okay, let's do this." I put out my hand and Esther took it.

_"Vescaram Anta Intacurum, Vescalis Dissendis Divinitum. Ex Tutum Tatum, Dimentum Talos. Dox Tribum , Nas Ex Veras."_ Esther started, calling on the strange dialect of Latin she used.

Esther put the Watch into the candle, and the whole body of it ignited. The fire did not smoke, it simply distorted and consumed. She then levitated the flaming object into the bowl, and we watched it melt into the water.

_"Lim Ala dar ala dilj."_ I called on a separate tradition, the Arabian school of transferring power from nature into a single object. The water swirled, mixing the melted watch with itself, and then turned at once into a molten silver.

Esther nodded as she peered into the bowl. "Get me a map and I can give you the precise location of my coffin. This should be an excellent focus for the necessary divination."

[hr][/hr]  
 **Wyld**

I watched Esther spell the discolored bodies of her children as I lurked on the Other Side. Everything looked legitimate, so I returned to my body.

"So do we have to kill her?" Vicki asked cheerfully.

"Nope. I think we're going to Mystic Falls," I smiled at Vicki.

"Damn." Vicki shook her head. "It's been so long I wasn't sure if we'd ever make progress."

"So, we have a few things to discuss before we go to sleep," I told Vicki.

"Hit me," Vicki smiled. "Weird fantasy quest instructions that only make sense because you watched the show first, please."

"Of course." I smiled back. "If everything goes to hell, you take Matt to New Orleans. There's a girl there named Davina Claire. Whatever happens, you'll need a witch in the future, and Davina's one of the only people I trust in your dimension."

"Huh. What's so great about her?" Vicki asked.

"From oh, the first two seasons of the spinoff, she's ethical, reliable, and intelligent. She's also potentially very powerful. You need to tell her that if the Harvest goes according to plan she will come back from the dead just fine and grow significantly in power. Don't betray her, be nice to her, and she'll be one of the best allies you can imagine." I explained.

"Cool." Vicki nodded. "I think I can remember that. Davina Claire, best witch if you and Lauren aren't around."

The fun part out of the way, I got more serious. "Okay. Next, there's a guy named Tom who looks like Stefan. I think he's in New York." I paused. "I need to look up memory and divination spells before I go to see if I can remember the last name. I want to say it's Baker, but not sure. So, due to the complicated nonsense involving Silas and Amara, he's a doppelganger like Elena, so his blood is a source of powerful magic. I am going to try and find him as soon as I can, both because he's in danger and because he is an amazing chess piece whatever happens. Secret supply of doppelganger blood that Klaus and Elijah don't even suspect exists and potential mystic counterweight to Lauren's enemies. If I can find him then I have a major advantage. If I get neutralized, you should find him."

"Weird," Vicki nodded. "Okay, dude looks like Stefan, is super valuable. Poor guy."

"Okay. Next, if you have to deal with Mikael, here's some information that might save your life. His eldest child, Freya, is alive. I don't know exactly where she is, but Esther sold her firstborn to her elder sister due to more plot complications. I don't know if Mikael can be grateful, but he has a good chance of being willing to drop everything to go and rescue a child that was too young to defy him last time he saw her." I paused. "I'm sure there's more things, tricks that I will remember in the moment, resources that could save your life, but piecing it all together right here is hard. I think those are important and not too dense to be distracting."

"Okay." Vicki smiled. "We really need to find a memory enhancement spell, don't we?"

[hr][/hr]  
Lauren and Damon showed up about an hour later. Lauren hopped out of the car.

"You really don't have to see us off," I said. Then I paused. Actually it was far safer if she did. "I'm glad you will, though."

"I'll contact you in your dreams every night," Lauren assured me. She turned to Vicki. "You will be stuck in there if the bodies get a dagger of desiccated, but if they die you should be back in the Other Side."

"Comforting," I shrugged. "

"Go kick ass in my name," Lauren said and hugged Vicki.

"Okay, Lauren. You should be able to channel my body just fine, since it's still a witch, but if you can't, I won't be able to help you much." I paused. "Worst case, see what you can Siphon off of my body's immortality. I don't know how well that will work, but it might be good."

"Noted." Lauren nodded a bit gravely. Then she hugged me. "I can't tell you to hurry back, but I will miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." I said.

"Vicki, take care of him. Jeff, take care of Vicki. Damon, if you fuck with us I will make you regret it." Lauren finished.

"What are you going to while we're gone?" Damon asked.

"There's an island on the east coast of Canada that contains, among other things, the cure for immortality, the tomb of Silas the Immortal, and possibly a rock of calcified blood from Qetsiyah, though that's less certain. The more power we can scrounge from there, the better. With a channel to the real world through Esther, amassing power in this dimension becomes a lot more useful." Lauren explained to Damon.

"Sounds handy," Damon nodded.

"See you on the other side, but not the one with capitalization," I told the others, and Lauren took my hand and Vicki's.

_"Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Raverus En Phasmatos Ex Sonos. Resistamus Et Veram Vatus. Raverus Phasmatos Ex Sonos."_ Lauren recited the incantation, and I lost consciousness.

[hr][/hr]

 

I awoke tasting something _disgusting_. I choked and bit, finding myself drinking it compulsively. My throat and core were raw, and the grossness was everywhere. After a few minutes I gathered myself together and stood up in the tub.

"What _is_ this shit?" Vicki asked next to me.

"No idea," I answered.

"What's with the accent?" Vicki giggled.

"I could ask you the same question," I pointed out. Her hand popped over her mouth. "Possession gives a lot of the host's muscle memory and subconscious. The exact amount can vary, but it makes it more useful," I explained. "Also more potentially dangerous."

"I can see why," Vicki nodded.

_"Venez sanguis,"_ I guessed, and I felt the blood leave me and saw it leave Vicki, cleaning us off. "So that's definitely blood." I looked around. We were in a storage locker full of old knick knacks that I guessed were Mikaelson crap that Klaus lugged around with his family.

"No, it's not," Vicki insisted.

"Not _people blood_ ," I corrected. "I'm guessing cow or pig."

"Gross!" Vicki shuddered. "Can't she have just robbed a blood bank?"

"Now that we're out among strangers we can't just go robbing blood banks. Hospitals need that blood. Also, it might've been too hard for Esther to find one on short notice." I shrugged.

"Gah!" Damon screamed suddenly as he gained consciousness. I watched Damon thrash for a minute before he subsided.

" _Venez sanguis_." I repeated. "You got the tall one," I commented, seeing Finn's body once the blood cleared.

"Jesus, no wonder Stefan's a buzzkill." Damon growled. "Where's the Original Bitch and why'd she put us in _cow_ blood?"

"I'm guessing she's a floor or so away from the killer vampires waking up in shitty blood," Vicki answered.

"Smart," Damon nodded and sniffed. "This way, kids." We followed him through a door and found a set of bathrobes.

"Thoughtful of her." I handed one to Vicki. I turned away from her to let her put it on.

" _Now_ you turn your back?" Vicki asked.

"Huh." I hadn't really thought about being naked until now. "Good point." I put on another robe, and Damon went last, smirking.

"We can't go out in public like this," Vicki said.

"Sure we can!" Damon laughed. "We're indestructible!" Ah yes, the joys of giving _Damon Salvatore_ more superpowers.

"I can make an illusion to make us look clothed until we hit a Target or something," I told Vicki.

" _Target_. No, we're going somewhere _cool_ first," Vicki demanded.

"I'm with Bottle Blonde," Damon agreed.

"We should check in with Esther upstairs, first." I said. The three of us glided down the hallway, following the smell of Esther.

The Original Witch stood outside the building. She looked a bit pained, seeing the faces of three of her children, alive and standing together.

"So, Hot Mama, off to Mystic Falls?" Damon asked.

Esther frowned. "Yes. I believe that we should secure the doppelgänger before Niklaus does."

Vicki chewed her lip. "Um, not to be a buzz kill, but it's been like six months since you told me _why_ Klaus wants to kill Elena?"

"Curse of the Sun and the Moon," Damon cut in. "Aztec shamans decided vampires and werewolves needed to be controlled, so we got the burning in daytime thing. Vampires break it, they stop needing daylight rings. Werewolves break it and they stop turning on the full moon."

Everyone looked at me as I started laughing. "Jeff, you okay?' Vicki asked.

"That's a story Elijah cooked up," I explained, still smiling. "He got vampires and werewolves hunting for the things needed to break the curse for centuries and killing each other over it."

"Wow." Damon looked at Esther. "Your kids are scary."

"They are," Esther said. "The truth involves a curse I placed on Klaus, in the early days of his transformation into a monster."

"Long story short, Klaus was born a latent werewolf, turned into a vampire, killed someone, became a full werewolf, and was still a vampire. He became the world's first Hybrid." I told Damon and retold Vicki.

"...that's dumb," Damon answered. Esther looked shocked while Vicki giggled.

"In the heady days of no one thinking clearly due to being vampires, and Esther dealing with her children becoming vampires, Mikael decided to curse Klaus to suppress his werewolf side. He got Esther and a few other people to agree, and they cursed him to bring him down to normal Original Vampire status."

"Huh," Damon looked confused.

"Mikael _said_ he would kill Klaus otherwise." Esther looked saddened. "Of course his rage only grew after the curse, but I was desperate to believe it could make our family whole again."

"Pretty much. Klaus was pissed that he went back to being _only_ an Original Vampire, so he killed Esther for the curse and told everyone else that their dad killed their mom. So we get the rest of the Originals running from Mikael ever since," I finished.

"Wait, isn't being a werewolf inherited?" Damon asked. He gave Esther a glance.

"Klaus's true father was a mighty warrior. My husband was a difficult man at the time, and Ansel was strong and kind." Esther said slowly.

"Ah." Damon looked back to me. "So, Klaus wants to kill Elena to become a Hybrid again?"

"I think he feels mutilated by his curse, and believes he will only be whole again if it is lifted." I told Damon. "Klaus does not care that the counter-curse requires three sacrifices including a doppelganger, a werewolf and a vampire. Elijah is just pissed due to family drama and wants Klaus dead. Elijah thinks that his best shot at getting Klaus dead is when he is turning into a werewolf for the first time."

"Alright." Vicki said. "Now we know what we need to do. Let's go to Mystic Falls!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Lauren**

I stalked the Prison World, lonely and feeling jealous of Vicki and Jeff for adventuring without me. The alternatives to sending them were slim to say the least. If I went I would lose my magic in the vampire's body, and be flooded with instincts and powers I had no experience controlling. As new as Vicki and Jeff were, they had some experience with being vampires, while I might become a Ripper if I was in Rebekah's body. Damon going along with them would also help, if Jeff was right.

I went over notes that Jeff had written out in a vague timeline of the "shows" he had watched. The things he was more sure of had all been mapped out fairly well, with a few holes or mistakes, but the things he hadn't reached yet were far harder to research. Jeff had learned some bits and pieces through reviews and wikis as well as the "jumpchain" document itself.

All of these notes fit on one page.

-Lucien Castle: The Beast. Vampire/Werewolf Original+Hybrid? Probably weaker than a Tribrid.  
-Kai: Siphoner, trapped in Gemini Coven Prison reached after the Other Side collapsed. Killed his family, or tried to, in order to lead his coven? Only twins rule the Gemini Coven.  
-Siphoner Vampires: Stronger than Tribrids. Can cast spells. Probably explode after a while.  
-The Devil: Cade? Psychic? Controls Hell? Inspired stories about the Devil. Gains power from evil (souls).

The name Lucien Castle meant nothing to me, but I agreed with Jeff it sounded incredibly cool and probably evil. Kai sounded like exceptionally bad news, but hardly seemed to rate compared to the others. Siphoner Vampires seemed like the most dangerous known unknowns, but then again anyone called "The Devil" might be worse.

I had gone over these notes before, while Jeff was gone. I had even asked the Travelers about Lucien Castle and Cade, though if they learned anything they had never shared it with me. I was getting stressed and worried without my friends.

I needed a distraction, and I had a gnawing curiosity about something that my current situation brought into focus. Since Lavinia was off working with the remaining Travelers, I was alone with Jonas Martin. Dr. Martin was a hard man, dangerous and powerful. In another world Jonas would be the kind of warlord who founded a petty kingdom that lasted for a few generations. In this world his life was twisted by Esther's stain on the world.

I entered Jonas's room. He looked up. "Hello, Lauren. Do you need something?"

"You have read a lot about witches," I stated and gestured at his collection of grimoires; several hundred of them. "You're a historian. I have some questions on a rare strain of witches. What do you know about Siphoners?"

"I know a little," Jonas said carefully. "Only the Gemini Coven ever produced them as far as I know, until your bloodline mixed with theirs. Even among that coven they are rare. I have studied this some since we met. You have a right to wonder about your heritage, and I believe even pure Siphoners are just as much witches as we are."

"Pure Siphoners," I commented. "So I am impure?"

"Not impure, a hybrid." Jonas clarified. "The Gemini Coven witches are either a Siphoner or a more normal witch. I believe you inherited one coven's magic from one parent and the Gemini Coven's Siphoner power from another."

"My mother's side descended from the Gemini Coven and my father's did not, yes." I considered. "So you think that the bloodlines of my parents gave me two different kinds of powers that happen to be complimentary?"

"It is the most reasonable theory I have. Few covens inbreed, but Siphoners are rare even among the Gemini, so if they are the only carriers of the gene then they may simply never have had someone inherit it while having a strong enough bloodline to also be another kind of witch. Siphoning seems to break down magic into a new form for later use, unlike channeling which requires defined energy sources. It has long been theorized that not all witches channel magic in the same way; bloodline powers and quirks are well known, so it might be that Siphoning is simply a noticeable example of a common event where witches are born with multiple forms of channeling." Jonas paused in his explanation. "It is possible that Nature has worked to balance or separate witch bloodlines, if the more interventionist theories are correct."

"Interventionist?" I asked.

"Some witches believe Nature is a person or deity while others believe it is simply a set of laws and consequences manipulated by witches. The Parliament of Spirits has been taken as evidence for and against both theories, as the Spirits may be responsible for 'divine' actions attributed to nature, but they claim to speak _for_ Nature." Jonas smiled. "Witches have religions just like mortals do."

"Do you have anything else to tell me about the Gemini Siphoners?" I asked.

Jonas picked up a grimoire I had seen before, which had belonged to a Gemini Coven witch. "The Gemini Coven largely accepted their existence until the late 19th century, when a generation produced an unheard of number of Siphoners at the same time during a population boom. Fearing the Siphoners would act together to steal magical power, they began exiling them from the coven. Later they were sent to a prison dimension much like this one after the Siphoners returned to seek vengeance on their former coven. Siphoners had always been met with fear and suspicion, but their willingness to work together terrified their elders into new and extreme actions."

"What do you know of their abilities?" I asked. "Is there anything that I could learn?"

Jonas paged through the book. "Siphoners could drain virtually any known form of magic. Werewolf bites, vampire blood, enchanted objects, sacrificial wards and active vampires are all known victims of Siphoner power. There are several claims that Siphoners are somehow related to demons, but none of the suggested links are particularly sensible and witches have used the term 'demon' extremely carelessly to refer to everything from witches from a nearby coven to vampires and werewolves. It seems that there are limits to how much power that can be safely Siphoned according to Gemini texts, similar to the limits of channeling. It is likely that your body would break down if you tried to channel anything that would be unsafe for a witch to use."

"That is quite informative." I nodded. "Thank you for your time."

"You know that being a Siphoner doesn't mean you _aren't_ a true witch, right?" Jonas asked. "Even if you didn't have your own mystic power, a Siphoner can connect to many of the same forces that a normal witch can channel."

"I've always thought people were just kind of racist against me," I shrugged. "Though I've always thrown off hostile magic far more easily than most people even when my Siphoning is not active. A few people have described me as a 'hole' in the magical world, but even if that's true I don't think it makes me evil."

"Racist?" Jonas raised an eyebrow.

"The whole point of your digging up all these lost grimoires is that you think witches are _one_ family. You don't think we're a different race just because we have a different _skin color_ , do you?" I giggled.

Jonas Martin gave me a rare smile. "That's fair, Sister. Is there anything else?"

"Nothing that I want from you, but I will tell you what I am working on and why I wanted to know more about Siphoning," I explained. "Way back in the past, Qetsiyah trapped Silas in a cave with the Cure for Immortality she whipped up, and expected him to take it. She sealed Silas in with powerful spells to make sure nobody dug him out in the hopes of using him. We don't even know exactly where it _is_ , though I've narrowed it down a bit. I was hoping that whatever she is using to cloak the island might show up when I use tracking spells, and that I might be able to amplify my Siphoning somehow to break through that. It seems that nobody developed any spells _using_ Siphoning directly like that, so I'm probably out of luck."

"Actually..." Jonas flipped through the grimoire. "There's an incantation mentioned to be used alongside Siphoning at times, to make it safer. It was used on a killing field of witches that the Gemini Coven warred against. " _Magia tollox de terras. Utera aso utox."_

"Ooh." I smiled. "That could help me a lot. I like knowing about my heritage, but I like expanding my powers a lot more."

"I am happy to help. Uncovering Silas, especially destroying him, would make a lot of what I have done worth it. The legend is not widely known, but it is exactly the kind of thing I have researched for years. I thought working with Elijah would be the height of my career, but clearly I was wrong." Jonas smiled again.

"Hm, there's something else." I paused. "Jeff says he got something vague, once. You are a historian of witches. Does the name 'Cade' mean anything to you? Jeff said he inspired stories of the Devil."

Jonas frowned. "Cade. No, I don't know that name. Clearly the Devil has a thousand stories about him, as do various demons of folklore. If there was a real _person_ who inspired stories of demons, he was presumably a witch or something like Silas or a werewolf."

"Jeff said Cade was some kind of psychic who got burned to death. He says he..." I paused. He'd said he read it in the "jumpchain" for The Vampire Diaries. "...it was different from his usual visions," I finished lamely.

"Without more information I can hardly guess what you are talking about. I will keep my eyes out for a reference to this 'Cade' and the Devil, but I doubt I will come across anything." Jonas said. "You never did tell me much about Jeff's visions, beyond that he had little or no control over them."

"They're his, not mine, so I don't know a lot about them." I answered Jonas, being careful. "Before he was trapped here, years before, he saw an arc of the future and a little of the past. He saw a lot about the Mikaelsons and doppelgangers and Mystic Falls, but it was all in patches. The timeline he saw is already derailed, but seeing _a_ timeline gave a lot of information. He also saw a little of New Orleans in general, but most of it was based around the Originals settling there."

"Do you know why he saw what he did?" Jonas asked. "Does he get new visions at a regular pace?"

"He says it was like a story in his head," I answered somewhat truthfully. "He doesn't get more, and he doesn't understand how what he saw connected to what he is living through." I paused and hedged. "He didn't even know that his visions were of real things until shortly before we met."

"If Jeff is a psychic, then is he related to this 'Cade' person? The immortality, the advanced compulsion, the visions; might that be what is going on?" Jonas asked thoughtfully.

"I hadn't considered that," I admitted. From what I had just told Jonas, it would make a lot of sense if Cade had given another psychic a variety of visions of the past and the future. It didn't fit what Jeff had described as well, but we had agreed that explaining the _entire_ backstory of the "jumpchain" would cause a lot more problems than our current version.

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

I woke up in the car and stretched. I'd never been able to sleep this well in a car in my old body, even as an Immortal, but it seemed that Kol was a natural at it. I checked the car's clock.

"Wake up, Vicki," I nudged her in the back seat. She lurched awake and pulled a strand of Rebekah's long hair in front of her eyes.

"Damn," She moaned. "I was hoping being blonde was just a nightmare."

"I gotta say I don't get the big deal. Claire Holt has a damn fine body." I shrugged. "That's not even factoring in Originality."

Vicki looked confused, then groaned as she caught the pun. "How on Earth do you know _this_ actress's name?"

"Mostly because it's easy enough to remember that it's probably a pseudonym. Also she was on a mermaid show in Australia before she joined The Vampire Diaries, so Netflix kept me reminded of the name when I watched it."

Vicki put her face into her hands. "Seriously. Watch cooler TV. _Please_. Mermaids, really?"

"Eh, I'm straight and have bad taste. Why _not_ watch a show about mermaids? They're not as gross as vampires." I paused. "No offense."

"Offense taken," Vicki growled.

"Then I apologize. If it helps, Rebekah is less likely to lay eggs than Emma so vampires have that beat." I smiled.

"Ugh." Vicki sighed.

Damon wrapped on the car window. I opened the door and waved to him.

"Crazy MILF has questions I'm not drunk enough to try and answer. We're swapping cars," Damon informed me.

"God yes!" Vicki shouted. "I need something to eat before he stops seeming gross and starts being quirky."

"Forest is full of critters," I pointed out. Vicki and Damon managed to roll their eyes in sync with each other. "Okay, Damon, make sure she doesn't kill anyone, please?"

"We'll see." Damon smiled.

I got out of the car and moved over to the one Damon and Esther had shared yesterday. "You are aware that I can't drive, right?" I asked her.

"I was not," Esther admitted cautiously. "Neither can I."

"So do I compel someone to drive us, or do you have another plan?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure it's mostly luck that Vicki didn't crash yesterday."

"I had some questions on your compulsion, actually." Esther said.

"Fire away," I nodded.

"You said that you were hoping to put your full psychic might into your host body. Yesterday you demonstrated minor magical powers beyond being psychic. I don't think you actually noticed at the time, but that should have been impossible." Esther looked at me. "Did you find a loophole?"

"Kind of," I answered. "Vampires can cast spells, as the Siphoners demonstrate. What vampires cannot do is _channel_. Even Travelers channel, they simply can't channel most things. I can't channel anymore, but when I entered this body I believe I carried a 'tank' of magical energy with me. This tank would likely have been tiny for Kol and Rebekah and may normally be exhausted in death or transition, but I didn't die and didn't transition. I believe my work on transferring my full psychic powers helped, but need to study this more."

"Fascinating." Esther nodded. "So with the right spell, any witch could possess the body of a vampire and cast a certain number of spells?"

"Lauren and I are very special witches. We have tremendous reserves of magical energy. Without _any_ channeling any magic I do will be very inefficient. I doubt many witches will gain the benefits I can." I looked at Esther thoughtfully. "Do you have plans?"

"It is another weapon to use against vampires. Lauren learned a great degree of magic from the Travelers, and perhaps you could communicate with her on how to increase your efficiency." Esther answered.

"I still prefer my true body, but I expected to be much more limited in this form. I consider myself very fortunate." I paused and thought. "So about the car..."

[hr][/hr]

 

A _very_ annoyed Damon drove me deeper into Virginia. After about a minute of talking Damon had declared I was "the worst company in the world" and I had shut up.

"Your future," Damon said suddenly. "I didn't die in it, did I?"

"Not that I recall," I answered. "You came close a couple of times, but didn't, oh wait, actually you did, unambiguously in the..." I caught myself before I said "season finale." "In the last vision I really had, actually. You and Bonnie were dead, about to deal with the Other Side collapsing. I think you somehow got sent to a Prison World next," I stopped myself from saying "season" _again_. "So that's a thing. You made it at least a few more years."

"A few more years," Damon sighed. "Spend 145 years on a plan, then die a few years later."

"You did pretty good, honestly. Schemed around the Originals, broke Augustine, helped save the magical world. You're not a hero, but you came close a couple times." I told him.

" _Why_?" Damon asked, sounding annoyed.

"Elena, mostly." I answered. "You fought _hard_ to save Elena when she needed it. That and pretty much just a bunch of things happening around you that you got sucked into. It's hard to live around Originals and doppelgangers without living an 'interesting' life."

"Elena?" Damon sounded unconvinced. "Did I get that bored without Katherine?"

"You didn't know her for very long in this timeline. In the timeline I saw, you knew her _very_ well. Elena has a mystique about her, and she is very good at social combat." I paused, realizing that my terms might not be good for Damon. "I mean, she's clever, and beautiful, and socially _skilled_ on an instinctive level. The learning curve for her lifestyle was steep, and she learned how to survive. You were a big part of that survival."

"You're saying she can play me?" Damon asked.

"Not exactly," I lied. "She can play _Elijah,_ though. Elena and Katherine, if they share anything, it is that they can start from nothing and walk into a situation so they start to control it. That kind of person scares me, but it is also kind of beautiful."

"Scares _you_?" Damon smiled. "How the hell do they do _that_?"

"What I have accomplished I have accomplished through advantages. You could say I am privileged. In a way, every vampire or witch is privileged, even werewolves if you accept the curse. Now, if you define things like that, everyone is privileged in some way. You're a man with a daylight ring, white, educated, and so you can do things that Bonnie could not. Bonnie has witchcraft you don't, and she is a beautiful girl with a loving family like you never had, and so things you would struggle with are easy for her. Elena gives the impression of being able to win despite expectations, though I think part of her power is controlling those expectations and stories. I am scared of her because if she beats me I won't have seen it coming. If Klaus beats me, it is because he's simply got better powers than I do."

"Does it get better, with her?" Damon asked. "Do I just stare at her and mope forever?"

"I've seen you get with her, honestly." I paused. "But no; loving Elena is never easy. Even if Stefan was dead she would never be easy to love. For you, love is always going to be a thunderstorm, never a clear summer's day."

"That's enough," Damon answered, but he sounded less annoyed now.

[hr][/hr]  
"Okay," Damon pulled into a bar parking lot. "We're getting you fed before we go into town."

"You mean people blood?" I asked. I felt mixed on that.

"Duh. That cow blood Esther woke us up in could last, but you're still sick from that."

"Sick?" I asked. "Doesn't it just like, not run you at 100% if you're on rabbit blood?"

"Try running an engine on cheap fuel, or running a marathon on cheeseburgers. You will feel the difference right away." Damon answered.

"You can stop me from killing, right?" I asked.

"I couldn't stop Vicki," Damon answered. I stared.

"What?" They hadn't told me.

"I tried to pull her off and she snapped the guy's neck. We're vampires, and these bodies are the same age. I can't stop you if you can't help me. Vicki didn't help me. Can you do better?"

[hr][/hr]

 

"So you're a psychic?" The girl asked me. I listened to Damon's thoughts on how to cut her off from her friends and she seemed impressed with Kol's body if nothing else.

"Think of a number," I answered.

The girl closed her eyes. "Seven," She said. She opened her eyes and I looked at her. "Oh!" She closed them.

I reached out. "Eight," I answered and her eyes flew open.

"No fair. Let's do it again." She closed her eyes again.

"Six," I said with a somewhat defeated sigh. "Come on, give me a challenge."

"Okay, my birthday?" She asked.

"February 19th, 1991," I answered. "Not what's on that fake driver's license, though." I paused. Barely eighteen, but did it matter? Maybe it would help me pull away.

"Cool!" She clapped her hands.

"Name is Stacie, currently with an eye-ee, but you had one 'eye' last year. Two cats, no dogs, no siblings." I continued.

"Wow. This is getting creepy." Stacie answered.

"Favorite book is _Twilight_ , but that's the first guess of any cold reader. Grandparents, Nathaniel and Elizabeth on one side, Simon and you forget on the other." I grinned.

Stacie's jaw dropped. "That's so freakin' cool!"

"Not even my best trick," I answered. I looked around. "Got a quarter?"

"Um, here's a dime." Stacie handed it to me. "Going to pull it out of my ear?"

"Nope." I sat the coin on its edge and put my hands around it. Then I raised my hands, and the dime rose with them so only she could see it.

"Alright, I give up. How are you really doing this?" Stacie smiled.

"Weird thing bit me and I woke up in a TV show," I answered.

"Huh?" She asked.

"Hot vampire drama on TV. Seriously. Weird ass random encounter, thing ripped into my throat, and when I came to I was regenerating in the woods." I pulled the dime with fierce strength over the palm of my hand, showing a gash that disappeared.

"What the hell was in my drink?" Stacie asked. Damon was shaking his head.

" **Nothing** ," I answered, putting a bit of compulsion into it. " **You want to know more.** "

"I want to know more." Stacie smiled.

"I've got another trick. **You want to go behind the bar and see it _,"_** I added compulsion to the idea.

"What's the trick?" She asked.

"You ever seen Buffy?" I asked as we got up. "Kind of like their vampire game faces, but way lamer and a lot more sexy."

[hr][/hr]  
I gasped, ripping myself from the girl and biting into the cement corner of the bar. Cement did not taste any better to a vampire than it did to a human, and I was tasting some of my own blood along with the girl's.

"Damn you're messy," Damon commented. "Here Stacie, have some nice vampire blood and heal up nice and strong. You've got a big day tomorrow." I heard Damon bite into his wrist and heaved against the cement again to stop myself from attacking him or the girl.

"Man, he _is_ messy." I heard Vicki's voice. "Was I this bad?"

"He didn't snap the neck rather than stop eating, Vick." Damon sounded tired.

"I told you we should've put in the vamp blood _first_!" Vicki sounded very annoyed. "He could have lived!"

"Great, and we'd be stuck with a brand new baby vamp to take care of on this mission. Great plan." Damon answered. " **Forget about this and go home**." Damon compelled Stacie and she walked away.

"I'm sorry." I looked up at Vicki.

"It was quick," She answered softly.

"You're a vampire. You'll get over it," Damon told us.

"Let's just be sure to stake Klaus. If you feel guilty, channel it into the mission. I've seen Klaus kill hundreds of innocent people in the course of doing his business." I suggested.

Damon stared at me. "Hundreds? I thought he was in control?"

"He _was_ ," I explained, darkly. "His biggest mess was probably when he wanted a vampire hunter to kill enough vampires to finish a ritual to track down the cure for immortality. He started grabbing batches of tourists, turning them, and compelling them to attack Jeremy so he'd have to kill them and continue with the ritual. There's also the time he jumped the gun and killed dozens of werewolves trying to make them into Hybrids. There's probably more, but those are the biggest I can remember."

Vicki shook her head. "Point taken. Klaus needs to die."

"Not like there's any chance a psychic bloodsucking witch will start racking up a body count after all." Damon rapped his knuckles along my back.

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

_"Ole Heldhat Eina Odvozniti."_ I chanted the Traveler incantation as I channeled the burning Donovan house. I felt I had a right to be petty with Vicki off on an adventure, and it's not like the house would _stay_ burned. I saw the howling ocean crashing on the shore, but nothing was more clear. " _Où tu fuis, A pouvoir la trouver. Yonn souri nan zeb._ " I tried a spell of Esther's to even less luck.

I pulled out my e-grimoire and started looking over cloaking and anti-cloaking spells. I had to assume Qetsiyah's cloaking spell would be stronger than any counter-spell I could produce, given how long it had lasted. Siphoning a spell I couldn't touch seemed impossible, and if I could touch the cloaking spell I wouldn't need to break through the cloak, I'd already be there.

I thought over the problem. It was possible to create a representation of a spell to manipulate it, though it was usually done as a form of magical training on spells designed for the purpose. I brought up a scan of Esther's notes on the "sanguinum knot" that she had trained with. I teased out the core elements of this. Without something of the island or Qetsiyah's I could not see how to create the representation. Then again, there _was_ something connected to something on the island that was within much easier reach.

Stefan Salvatore was the doppelganger of Silas if Jeff was to be believed. A mystical representation of an immortal. If the cloaking spell was protecting Silas, I could interact with it through Stefan.

I walked to the Salvatore boarding house and went to Stefan's room. Hundreds of journals and diaries from Stefan's long life were here. I picked one up and considered it. The link was very tenuous. Diary to Stefan to Silas to cloaking spell.

It took me two days to crack the problem. Stefan's diary, wrapped in a pair of Elena's underwear to exploit his connection with her, to represent Stefan. I drew a line of salt from Stefan's representation to an emptied blood pack from Jeff's refilling cooler, and inside the pack I put in a splinter of White Oak from the sign "Welcome to Mystic Falls." A symbol of immortality surrounded by blood made for an Immortal; echoing Elena's call to Stefan in blood's call to Silas.

Finally I drew a line of chalk from Silas's representation to a photograph of Bonnie, wrapped in her grandmother's sock. A spell of Qetsiyah's was represented by an image of Qetsiyah's descendant, calling to a beloved family member.

The spell was delicate magic. Channeling most things wouldn't have helped, as I needed to call on a very faint connection, not overwhelm it with more power. I needed to provide an active push to make the connection, however. I looked up ideas of Earth magic, and placed magnets on each representation to symbolize the pull of magic into these representations.

I had Jonas look over my notes and magic.

"Fascinating," He said after he finished looking over the ritual. "I admit this is far too improvisational for me to give a confident answer on whether or not it will work, but each step of theory is sound. I don't even think it is dark magic, and as such the risks are relatively small."

"Define 'relatively' for me, please?" I asked.

"It's an entirely new spell. You could draw the attention of malicious powers. I believe that there _are_ malicious powers that magic can stumble across beyond the ideas of breaking a natural balance or contacting evil ghosts, but witches have failed to create a taxonomy of such forces. As this is a new spell I cannot rule out the idea that this stumbles across something dangerous, but I don't see any reason why it _would_. It could also alert Qetsiyah if she's still on the Other Side and draw her ire, but I doubt she truly exists these days. Though I would have never guessed Esther was still around, so it might be a larger risk than I assumed." Jonas shrugged.

"Jeff thinks she's alive. Well, dead, but an active spirit on the Other Side who might come back. He told me he saw her do it and even knows what she looks like." I answered.

"Do you think he's right?" Jonas asked.

"Yes," I answered. "He's made a few mistakes, but his visions are just too accurate to ignore them. He saw _a_ timeline where Qetsiyah was walking around alive, even if it wasn't _our_ timeline."

"He is an odd man to put faith into, even if I agree," Jonas answered. "He is clearly hiding something."

"Oh," I had discussed this with Jeff in a dream vision. "It's more a matter of the dreams being surrounded on all sides by craziness."

"Huh?" Jonas looked at me curiously.

"Okay, so you know how he sometimes starts rambling about random bullshit? It is because his _visions_ are like that. If he has a vision about Rebekah, he doesn't _just_ see Rebekah, he sees a girl who looks like her but is a mermaid and a champion swimmer and then he sees her as a detective. We think he sees their _dreams_ just as much as their waking lives. It means he's always having to watch himself for what is actually a part of the world he sees and what is just something that someone dreamed about or _felt_ was true. If he didn't censor himself and he described everything he knows and how he saw it, then he would make everything a lot less clear."

Jonas smiled. "That's an excellent lie. Keep using that."

After Jonas left I went over everything again one more time. Finally, I decided to add a candle; fire signified purity, and I would need to only gather the pure energies of the cloaking spell instead of drawing random power from the Earth.

My work complete I did the spell and felt the magical ties form. I placed my hand above Bonnie's photograph and Sheila's sock and began to slowly, delicately siphon. As the representation emptied, a bit more magic was summoned into it, and I had a bit more magic to siphon. Over the course of several hours I weakened the spell enough that I could overwhelm it with a locator spell and find the exact spot the island had to be on a map.

Once I was done I pulled Emily's talisman and projected to the Other Side. I watched my friends in Mystic Falls. Jeff looked comfortable in Kol's body. Vicki looked a bit out of sorts, always playing with her hair and trying to avoid being seen.

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

Mystic Falls was just as chaotic as I had expected. Among other things, Katherine and Lexi were working together with Bonnie and Elijah on the plan to kill Klaus. A large pack of werewolves were running after the moonstone and trying to break the Curse of the Sun and the Moon. For some reason Elena and Jeremy's aunt had become a vampire shortly before I entered the town. The town history teacher and vampire hunter, Alaric, had vanished instead of joining the adventuring party. I picked all of that up just from reading minds in the school cafeteria.

"Elijah took down the sign made of White Oak," Vicki reported, entering the school janitor closet I'd made temporary home base.

"As expected, but still annoying," I answered. "If he thinks all the Originals he likes are buried at sea then he might be weaponizing it instead of burning it, though."

"Think he's noticed people in the bodies of his brothers and sister?" Vicki asked.

"He's not on the lookout for that. Klaus probably is wondering what happened to them, but he'll probably blame Mikael."

"Their dad would really kidnap them in a plan to kill Klaus?" Vicki asked, sounding a bit weirded out.

"Absolutely," I answered. "If he could kill Klaus without harming any of his other children he probably would, but I have _no_ doubt that Mikael would harm the rest of them to get at Klaus."

"You act like you feel sorry for Klaus half the time, and the rest you act like he's the worst piece of shit ever. What gives?" Vicki asked.

I considered the answer. "He's dealt with absolute shit, but he's worse than he has to be. Klaus is cruel, paranoid and selfish, but he also knows enough about people that he's usually _right_ about them. Growing up, both his parents abused him and neither one respected him, and then they turned him into a vampire _and_ cut off his metaphorical balls when he found out what he was missing all his life. He took that abuse and played it out in the cruelest ways imaginable on anyone who came under his power. If you want a metaphor, Klaus is a rabid dog who needs to be put down, but he's still a dog, and it's always a tragedy when a dog goes rabid. "

"Dogs," Vicki said thoughtfully. She picked up a nearby mop and twirled it experimentally. "Sometimes I think you and Lauren look at me like a dog who might bite."

"I've had nasty pets. When I was a toddler my family took in an adorable stray kitten. When I ran, he would jump on me, claws out. My parents declawed him, and he stopped hurting me," I answered.

"What happened to the cat?" Vicki asked.

"Huckle lived for years, most of my childhood, and died outside. He was a good cat overall," I answered. Then I paused. "I was a bad child, sometimes. I got mad at Huckle for hurting me, and so I hurt him when he couldn't fight back. I stopped, of course, but I didn't stop as soon as I knew better."

"Jesus." Vicki winced. "Remind me never to get you a cat."

"We made peace long before he died. I do well with cats now. But it might be an argument against declawing in the metaphorical as well as literal department," I admitted.

"Being a vampire is shitty," Vicki answered. "Before I was a vampire Damon could do anything to me he wanted. After I was a vampire Stefan felt he had to kill me."

"Overall I think being a vampire is less safe than being a human. But vampires aren't really important. Vampires are just detritus of Esther's Originals. I think for all the flaws of Esther's spell, it helped her children more than it hurt them. Kol and Rebekah want to be witches, but I don't think any of them but Finn would rather be dead than be monsters."

"Did you just offer to make me an Original?" Vicki asked.

"I implied it," I admitted. "I am unsure to what extent it's even possible to transform a ghost into an Original Vampire or something like it. Then, even if I have a spell, look at the side effects Esther's version had. Without some time to test it I have no idea how it might go wrong. And then there's the issue that you killed someone by accident; without more control I'd be accepting a giant pile of corpses building up over time."

"It'll all be fine though," Vicki said darkly. "We just kill Klaus and we're a net gain no matter what shit we do, right?" She was clearly not taking my earlier statement well now that she'd had time to process it.

I stuck to my guns. "Kill Klaus, we wipe out most of the vampiric race. Almost all of it if we get Kol and Finn staked as well. I don't think Elijah or Rebekah sired many vampires, but it'd be good hygiene to kill them anyway. That just leaves Mikael, who we should destroy on general principles _anyway_ and probably doesn't have any living vampires descended from him. There's maybe what, a thousand vampires in the world? I'd guess they kill quite a few people a year."

"So all the poor people who didn't have a choice, like _me_ , get killed to save a bunch of other innocent people?" Vicki asked.

"Trolley problem. Shove a fat man in front of a trolley to stop it from hitting five people, did you do the right thing even though it looks like a murder?" I shrugged. "Philosophers have been arguing over this for centuries. On the ground, people tend to be utilitarian when they can consider each individual case on an emotional level, but when you zoom out and look at numbers you tend to follow whichever story seems more visceral. Adding up five stories of medical miracles doesn't quite register to us against a doctor slicing up a stranger to give his organs to five patients. I'm willing to bite the bullet and bomb a a metaphorical camp with 500 refugees and 500 serial killers, but if you're _not_ willing to do that then it's not a sign you're a bad person."

"You're such a comforting friend," Vicki glared at me.

"I try to be honest. I think about depressing shit a lot and being morbid runs in my family." I answered.

"Your real family, the one in the land of Nina Dobrev you hail from, not the witch body's, right?" Vicki asked.

I smiled. "Yes. In the land of Nina Dobrev, my father loves horror and my mother loves thrillers. When the TV is on my mom's cop shows will have victims screaming in pain and my dad's horror and fantasy will have the sounds of people dying to monsters. Both of them think the other one's tastes are creepy. When I visited my grandmother she had bought someone's stuffed dead cat at a yard sale and kept it around in the living room because she thought it looked cool."

"You're making me miss Matt," Vicki smiled back at me. "I want to tell him about everything when it's all over. But I don't know where to _begin_ right now. 'Hey, I became a vampire, and I died, and this is a friendly nerd from another dimension who doesn't think his girlfriend would mind if he gives me extra superpowers.' Now I know you want to say it just like that when you meet him, but please don't." Vicki sounded mildly worried.

"It's likely," I admitted. "I have to say I never liked your brother much on the show, but he never did much _wrong_ besides being a bit of a dick to Caroline when she was in deep freakout modes he didn't understand when she became a vampire. Okay, and sometimes just being a dick to the human Caroline, but she could be a bit much."

"Well, he doesn't have my tits," Vicki answered.

"That's probably a factor. Prettier people just feel _worth_ more, and I'm saying that as someone who never felt pretty. It's not a good way to go through _life_ but it's sensible when watching TV." I answered.

"Oh yeah, you were really fat." Vicki laughed.

"It just didn't feel like it _mattered_ what I did to my body, I guess. I was a guy and I'd never _feel_ that hot. I never liked sports, always seemed a bit sick, needed glasses and had strange nosebleeds. I always felt a bit _wrong_ before I met Lauren. Maybe it was the Immortal healing that cleaned up acne and scars, but I think I wouldn't have needed that just as long as I knew I had her at my back." I reminisced for a minute.

"I get it," Vicki said quietly. "She just _trusts_ people, even the worst people."

"Nicely put." I tipped an imaginary hat to Vicki.

"You know I feel we should be doing something," Vicki said after we'd been quiet for a minute. "We were stuck in your Prison World for so long after all. Shouldn't we be hunting down Klaus or making dangerous deals by now?"

"We're keeping guard on Elena," I answered. "If Klaus makes his move, it has to be toward her, and if we just kidnapped her we'd start a mess I'm not sure we could clean up. But if you're worried, one of us should go and make contact after school." I considered for a moment. "If you don't mind, it should probably be me. Your coming back from the dead in the body of an Original raises a lot of questions and I can read their minds to make contact easier."

"No complaints from _me_." Vicki answered. "If you want to deal with Elena and the guy who killed me, be my guest."

[hr][/hr]

 

In the end I decided the best course of action was just to walk up to the Salvatore Boarding House and knock on the front door. Stefan opened the door; Lexi had to be letting him out of the basement if I hadn't arrived in the middle of a daring escape.

"Stefan Salvatore?" I 'asked' the vampire.

That's me. Are you looking for someone?" Stefan asked, clearly a bit preoccupied.

"Okay, remember the weird shit involving Emily? I'm the psychic she was talking to and I'm possessing a vampire. We need to talk. Can I come inside?" Beating around the bush would do me no favors with any of the doppelgangers.

"You're Lauren, then." Stefan said. "The one Emily is afraid of."

"Jeff, actually." I shrugged. "I guess you lost something in communication. Lauren's stuck in there with me, but I'm the one who knows the future."

"I'd invite you to come in, but I actually can't do that anymore," Stefan explained.

"Ah, did you get around to giving Elena your house so strange vampires couldn't walk in?" I asked.

",,,yes," Stefan frowned. "You say you see the future. What do you mean by that?"

"I'll make a long story short; I saw a detailed but incomplete account of a future timeline that diverged roughly when Lauren and I became trapped in a kind of prison dimension. My efforts to escape led to my contacting Emily Bennett, and that has been the center of the considerable divergences from the timeline I saw. I do not know how things _will_ go, but I still have a great deal of information on the secrets, motivations and capabilities of the major players in the coming events."

"So you know about the sacrifice," Stefan nodded.

"I know more about the Hybrid Curse than Klaus does. I also know exactly how to stop him from killing Elena, if he can be convinced I am being sincere. Hypothetically I know how to kill Klaus as well, though that is unlikely to be easy and runs into problems with Elijah." I explained.

"Are you working with Elijah?" Stefan asked.

"Not yet. I expect he will regret _not_ making a deal with me sooner, as I am currently possessing the body of his younger brother." I smiled at Stefan, who stepped back into the house.

"Does that make you an Original?" Stefan asked cautiously.

"For most intents and purposes. Where do you want to meet up, if your house is off limits?"

"I don't know. Somewhere private. If Elijah or Klaus overhear us..." Stefan winced.

"If it helps, your brother's possessing the body of Elijah's _older_ brother. Call that a gesture of good faith, though I didn't do it to win _your_ favor. He was off to see Sheila Bennett last time I spoke with him." I leaned against the wall.

"You want something in return," Stefan guessed.

"Of course. I am currently trapped in an alternate dimension. I would very much like to _not_ be trapped in an alternate dimension. Everyone who is willing to work on that in this dimension is a significant help to that. If I do enough favors for people and dangle enough rewards in front of them I am hoping that people will have no choice but to drag me out." I answered Stefan a bit lazily, feeling rather relaxed.

"What _exactly_ do you want from me?" Stefan asked.

I paused, thinking about how much to say. "Mostly, blood. Elena's doppelganger blood has very useful properties. I have a set of particularly nasty witches I need to defeat in order to ensure I get into your dimension, and doppelganger blood is a massive advantage in witch fights. You are also personally competent, dangerous and resourceful, but those qualities are replaceable and hence I am far more willing to be negotiated out of asking for your _service_ in exchange for defeating Klaus and saving Elena."

"What is your plan to save Elena?" Stefan asked directly.

"Ideally, kill Klaus. I have a few options for how to do that, but none of them are certain. If that proves impossible, I will save Elena by doing my best to convince Klaus that he needs the blood of a living doppelganger. Has Elijah told you the real curse yet?" I asked. Stefan nodded. "Okay. So Klaus isn't the only Hybrid who needs doppelganger blood to transition. If he doesn't feed that to werewolves he's turning into Hybrids, they die quickly and in agony. About 75% of why Klaus even wants to break this curse is to make more Hybrids like himself."

"He doesn't know that?" Stefan frowned.

"His mother went to great lengths to stop Klaus from making his idealized master race. Honestly, the Hybrid plan is the part of Klaus's goals I find _least_ objectionable. Being a werewolf sucks, and being a Hybrid is better than being a vampire or a werewolf. All things being equal I'd like that option to be on the table, but it's _not_ all equal as Klaus is going to kill quite a few people in order to break the curse, celebrate breaking the curse, and in the course of his life as an Original Hybrid." I paused for a moment, weighing the idea of Hybrids. "If Elijah has been weaponizing White Oak he's unlikely to tell it to you or Katherine. That mostly leaves either the use of magic to subdue him. I assume either Bonnie or Luka is being tied to the massacre site to use dead witch power to kill Klaus?"

"You know, you really should be more careful about what you say in public," I heard a voice behind me. It was about time.

"Hello, Elijah," I said without looking back. "Please don't kill Stefan? His brother would be angry if you did."

"You have gotten far since we last spoke," Elijah said, softly. "It seems that finding my family's bodies was easier than expected."

"Honestly, Klaus didn't hide them as well as he said he did. It would have taken quite a while to search the world's oceans, but I found them all together." I turned around. "Hopefully this doesn't make you chicken out on wanting Klaus dead."

"He worked to destroy our family. Your coming along to reunite us hardly mitigates that," Elijah answered. I noticed he didn't actually _answer_ my question.

"So do you want my help?" I asked.

"What _exactly_ are you offering?" Elijah asked.

"That's a good question. I have various ideas, even in this body. If I had some blood from various vampire sire lines and the doppelgangers I think I could manage something to let you kill Klaus before the Sacrifice so long as we can drive White Oak through his heart. Otherwise, you simply have the help of three extra Originals in this fight." I smiled.

"Oh?" Elijah looked amused. "That is incorrect. Finn has already disappeared. As for whoever you have put into Rebekah, there is another complication."

"What do you mean by complication?" I asked.

"Ah. To put it simply, she is dealing with my father," Elijah answered.

"Oh." I answered. "Fuck."


	12. Chapter 12

**Wyld**

I paced around the yard as Elijah stared impassively.

"Mikael shouldn't be awake yet according to my visions, so something changed," I said. "Anna is dead. What happened to Pearl?"

"Pearl?" Elijah asked.

"A friend of Katherine's," Stefan explained. "She was trapped in the tomb. John Gilbert and Sheriff Forbes killed her."

I began to rant. "Incompetent of a vampire, getting killed by a human. At least Katherine fucked her over for the tomb."

"Do you always ramble like this?" Stefan asked.

"Yes," I answered. "So, Anna and Pearl were the ones who knew where Mikael was, or how he could be found. That leaves um, either they told someone, or the Bennetts are involved."

"What do the Bennetts have to do with Mikael?" Elijah asked.

"Bonnie's mom was the one who disabled him in the 90s I think. He showed up looking for Elena to try and trap Klaus or something. Sheila may have known more than Bonnie did and she didn't die this time around, so she probably got Mikael." I ranted.

"You seem disconcerted," Elijah said. "You are treating this as quite the setback. Surely his presence increases the odds of Klaus dying, which you claim to want?"

"You aren't scared?" I asked Elijah. "He's spent the last thousand years trying to murder you and everyone you care about. This is the Original Vampire Hunter, the guy who burns cities just to get a crack at Klaus. I don't want Mystic Falls burned."

"That's good to know," Stefan nodded. "How do you two know each other, again?" Stefan asked Elijah.

"We have conducted negotiations through magic. He and his companion gave me a number of useful pieces of information to try and gain my favor." Elijah looked at me. "I admit that since you told me Klaus killed my mother and framed our father for it I had wondered about rapprochement with Mikael before now."

"Terrible idea. Then again, you'll spend the next four years running around New Orleans trying to play house with the lunatics you call a family-" I stopped myself.

"What?" Elijah looked at me. "You are saying that without you I found my siblings and I did so _quickly_. Just where _were_ they?"

I sighed. "Fuck it. Klaus never buried them at sea, that was just a tantrum where he lied or something. I saw him tell you he could take you to them right before you would've killed him, and then you turned traitor on Team Mystic Falls and swept him away. Klaus daggered you _immediately_ of course, and tossed you in with the rest of his trash and luggage. If you want to know why I don't trust you, _that_ is why, Elijah. You make the _dumbest_ calls when it comes to Klaus."

"He has a temper," Stefan said to Elijah.

"I know the type," Elijah smiled. "You seem unable to hold onto any leverage that your powers grant you." He told me.

"Consider it a character flaw," I answered. "If this means you're just going to serve Elena up on a platter to your brother and try to build a happy family, be smart. That foul creature has been holding you back for a thousand years. He abuses all of you and if he breaks his curse his ability to bully will only grow."

"I take it you want my help destroying Niklaus and Mikael. Are you offering Kol, Rebekah and Finn in return?" Elijah asked. I paused.

I thought fast. "Nope. I already promised all of you to your mother."

Elijah looked surprised. "You _were_ in contact with her?"

"She's the one who put me in Kol's body. Remember, super precise visions. I found Rebekah's necklace, which was around Elena's neck for some incredibly dumb reason, and used it to summon the Original Witch. I actually did that a while ago, but encountered delays that I doubt would interest you." I paused. "Were you aware her body was in storage, preserved and protected? My companion, Lauren, was able to break the enchantments on it to allow Esther to rise."

"Fascinating," Elijah murmured. "Why did you not explain this before?"

"I expected Esther to talk to you about it," I lied. I had hoped Esther could cook up a way to wipe out her children independent of my own machinations, but Mikael had thrown me for a loop. I had reacted badly to this and would have to do better. I forced myself to get calm.

"Why did she put you into Kol's body?" Elijah asked.

"I'm more powerful than Kol would be in this body," I said. "Also we were under time and resource constraints. I would _really_ rather be in my own body, but my companions felt we needed a show of good faith and this was the best option available at the time."

"You have been consistent about wanting power on this side." Elijah nodded.

"Power is only an instrument, not a purpose for me. I want to get myself and my companions back into the real world in one piece and in a timely fashion. After that I have no use for an Original body, either my own or allied, outside of perhaps helping pay a few debts to the people helping me." I shrugged.

"I must speak to my mother first, but it is possible we can make a deal." Elijah nodded. "I can see how my emotional ties with my father and brother could cause hesitation, no matter how pure my intentions are. Perhaps I could handle the problem of the enemy witches you fear, while you worked with my mother to handle Niklaus and Mikael?" Elijah looked very thoughtful.

"I'd honestly love that," I said sincerely.

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

"I screwed up," Jeff said. We sat on my memory of a California beach.

"How badly?" I asked.

"I exploded at Elijah and gave up a lot of leverage. I can see advantages to it, making Elijah feel more in control, but it wasn't a calculation, it was an outburst." Jeff looked contrite.

"I am surprised he pushed your buttons that well," I admitted.

"He didn't. I was shocked by another matter. Mikael is awake. Currently he is holding Rebekah, and by that I mean Vicki, underneath Fell's Church in the vampire tomb." Jeff shook his head.

"How did _he_ get up?" I asked.

"I'm guessing Esther. I lost contact with her after we entered Mystic Falls. Damon's MIA, too. We really need to find better help." Jeff sighed. "Elijah thinks we're allies because I told him we had a deal with his mother, but I have no idea how stable that is."

"I can't track Esther, but I know where Damon is," I answered. "He's daggered and in Bonnie's grandmother's basement for some reason. I think Sheila Bennett is working for Klaus, but God only knows _why_."

Jeff put his face in his hands. "This. Fucking. Town." he groaned.

"I'm guessing you couldn't get access to any White Oak?" I asked.

"Nope," Jeff answered. "I can't blame Elijah for that, but I actually don't want to use it on him." Jeff paused. "Maybe on Kol, though. But that's due to irrational hangups about the local vampires."

"Elaborate?" I asked.

"Okay, so Elijah can't and won't kill Klaus and Mikael. He's not strong enough and lacks the will. Same goes for me and Damon in Finn's body, realistically. So, I make someone who _can_ kill Klaus and Mikael. Coincidentally that person can kill Elijah, Kol, Rebekah and Finn." Jeff looked happier. "It's basically Esther's plan in late season three. She made Alaric into a kind of pumped up Original. I think I can make a knockoff."

"My confidence is inspired. What kind of 'knockoff' are we talking about?" I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, so the original vampire transformation happened when Klaus was a human without an activated werewolf 'gene' and then he turned into a Hybrid when he killed someone. There's two Lockwoods in that exact state in the town. I've been thinking about the process. There would be losses compared to Esther's spell, but I could make a kind of second generation Hybrid." Jeff explained.

"Huh." I nodded. "You're thinking of warping the werewolf curse, have them kill a vampire instead of a human, make it into a super vampire hunter."

"It would be stronger than Klaus or Mikael as they are now, though weaker than a true Hybrid Klaus. If Elijah has two stakes for it, then it'd go pretty well." Jeff smiled.

"You're putting a lot of trust in a random Lockwood," I pointed out.

"I've seen the man Tyler can become. Admittedly, I think he might go psychotic if he stopped being a Hybrid, but he has an intense will and focus when he's on his game. I know the one in canon would have _jumped_ at the chance to destroy Klaus. Even now, we're talking about giving a teenage boy superpowers and a mission to kill psychotic vampires." Jeff explained.

"Okay, so that's the big plan; make another gigantic potential threat to kill all the threats that are running around, and then somehow pile that into getting out of the Prison Dimension?" I asked.

"It has some kinks to work out, but we made a deal with Esther and because of it we have boots on the ground in the real world. Helping her destroy the vampires is necessary. If we just bugger off because it's hard then why would anyone else work with us?" Jeff sounded tired.

"I'm not saying we do that. It's just a messy plan. Can't you think of anything simpler?" I asked.

Jeff sighed. "If I was a witch, yes. If I was in contact with Esther, yes. Otherwise, the next best plan is sacrificing Bonnie and Luka to kill Mikael and Klaus, and that has a number of logistical and ethical failure points even if they can both agree to it and both can channel enough power to do it."

"I'll see what I can do about Esther." I nodded. "Otherwise, you have my blessing for carrying out this hare-brained scheme."

[hr][/hr]

 

I managed to get through to Esther with a mildly modified version of the dream communication spell.

"Hello, Lauren. Have you made progress on your mission to unearth Silas?" Esther asked.

"Quite a bit, actually. Where did _you_ go? Mikael is awake and Jeff says you vanished from Mystic Falls?" I asked.

"I thought it would be obvious. Jeff told me how to defeat my sister, Dahlia. He also told me that my daughter, Freya, was not sacrificed by Dahlia and is somehow alive. Dahlia is keeping her as a slave. I am on my way to rescue her." Esther looked surprised that I had not guessed this.

"Jesus Christ," I whispered. "You thought _now_ was the right time to do this?"

Esther starred. "It is hard to be sure of the timeline, but Jeff made it clear that in his visions I was defeated, and defeated _twice_ , when I attempted to destroy the vampires. Jeff also told me that Freya is an extremely powerful witch. I am beginning a plan that shall ensure my victory in Mystic Falls. I expect to be ready in two or three months at most."

"What _exactly_ are you doing besides making a run on your sister?" I asked.

"I will free my firstborn. Then I shall gather allies using the strategy that Jeff claimed I would use in New Orleans. Finn, Rebekah and Kol shall be put into the bodies of dark witches. Then we shall return to Mystic Falls and force Niklaus and Elijah to surrender their current bodies before I undo the spell that turned my children into monsters. Mikael, perhaps, we can make listen to reason, but it is likely he will have to be killed." Esther explained this plan as if it made perfect sense.

I closed my eyes. " _This_ is the plan you want help with? Not simply staking Elijah and Klaus, then staking the Originals we already subdued? Not bonding with a witch hot spot and using it for one to one sacrifice of a witch for an Original. You plan on gathering a coven of insane former vampires into the bodies of dark witches and using _that_ to live happily ever after?"

"Not indefinitely," Esther said. "We shall simply live out the remainder of the natural lives of our hosts and then we shall go to the Other Side and find peace."

"God, because there's no way _your_ children would start looking for loopholes." I shuddered. "To be clear, are you saying that we _cannot_ just stake anyone?"

Esther paused. "Mikael can be staked. If Niklaus would otherwise break the Hybrid Curse and create his abominations, perhaps. Otherwise, I expect your cooperation. I granted you three powerful Originals to tend to your own goals. You can certainly hunt the Coven of the Thirteen better than I can. Is there a reason you need me in Mystic Falls before you have located the Ascendant and developed a tactical plan for taking it and escaping? I will be back well before the next cycle where the Coven of the Thirteen will enter your prison."

"...okay. We had to tell Elijah we were working with you to compensate for Mikael's escape. Can we have like, a phone call to make sure he's working with us instead of against us?"

"That sounds reasonable." Esther answered.

[hr][/hr]

"Is it weird I am actually _not surprised_?" Jeff asked.

"Honestly I don't even know anymore." I shook my head. "Why can't you have known the nice, competent witch who would help us out in exchange for a threesome instead of these lunatics?"

"I'm pretty sure Davina's still a scrub tier witch who can't do magic outside of New Orleans. I think Rebekah and Finn possessed a couple, one of them named Vincent, who were doing crazy dark magic around this time, but it's not a lot to go on and the one Rebekah possessed was crazy enough to start abducting witch children for human sacrifice. Without eyes on the ground in New Orleans I can't really do any better for witch support." Jeff sighed.

"That was honestly a lot less rhetorical than I expected." I admitted. "What are you going to do when Elijah scrams looking for the Coven of the Thirteen?"

Jeff looked thoughtful. "If Esther gets him to give me White Oak? I'll be working on the plan to make Tyler into a superhero to give us leverage. Honestly, Elijah working to get us out of here would make me feel a _lot_ safer. Like, worst case we could spin the wheels of Mikaelson insanity for years until we figure out a way to destroy them or live with them, but our chances for getting out of the Prison World could be a lot more limited. I'd _really_ rather destroy the vampire species, but that probably more a matter of ego than of necessity."

"Egotistical, you?" I smiled at Jeff.

Jeff smiled back. "Throw someone into a setting that he thinks he knows well and give him superpowers. It goes to his head. Admittedly I just made an argument against my plan with Tyler, but there are a lot of options in that region of planning."

"What is Mikael doing to Vicki?" I asked.

"From what I can tell, Vicki tried to pretend she was Rebekah, failed, and is now telling Mikael some of the craziest BS you can imagine." Jeff smiled. "It's true of course, but she's been hanging around _me_ , so I think she's picked up the talent of explaining things in the least clear way imaginable."

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

I returned from my dream vision directed at Lauren to the woods near the vampire tomb and listened in on Mikael's thoughts.

I saw Vicki in Rebekah's body through Mikael's eyes, which was not the easiest chain of things to keep straight. "So then there's this like, witch who eats witches. You know, like you're a vampire who eats vampires. He's stuck in some kind of purgatory for killing his siblings and wants to eat witches to escape. So that wouldn't matter, but then Damon arrives and I think Elena is with him, and..."

"Shut up!" Mikael screamed and ripped out Rebekah's remaining eye. There was a pile of regrown eyes next to him. Vicki was chained in a coffin with nails going through her, and was looking pretty well considering that is the state she was in.

"You stab me when I tell the truth, you stab me when I lie. I think you just like stabbing Claire Holt," Vicki laughed.

"Stop. Talking. About. TV!" Mikael screamed. "How did you possess Rebekah!"

"It involved a blonde, and another blonde, and they put me in a blonde." Vicki rambled. "I've wanted to ask this since I turned, but why do vampires have to pee? They're dead, so why do we have to pee?"

"You think you are being brave, but you will break," Mikael said. "Your mental resistance is nothing on my daughter's. I will be inside your mind soon enough."

"You think that when I'm broken you'll be able to learn _more_ of the truth from inside this head? Jeff told me all about how torture sucks for this. If you break someone they don't remember things like if they're _married_ or not. How are you going to hack into an Original without turning her mind to soup?" I eyed more of Vicki through Mikael's eyes. Her face twisted in pain and she was covered in blood.

"Gah!" Mikael screamed again. "Stop the inane prattle!"

"I can only prattle inanely thanks to you, Original Dad. You're the one who made Rebekah drink and gave her all this nice pain resistance, weren't you?" Vicki asked.

"I did what I had to do to protect my children. Once I have eliminated you I will be able to talk to my daughter once more and break her of her attachment to that abomination she calls a brother." Mikael explained. He pushed another nail into Vicki, starting with the middle, and going in slowly.

"How are you gonna do that? Got a pet witch in your pocket?" Vicki asked. "I don't even know how to get out of this body or I totally would've let Becky handle the whole _Hostel_ rip off."

"The town has witches. If they will not help me, I will destroy this town and find another witch. I have learned that in this world I can do anything if I simply have the patience and the will," Mikael answered.

"Yet a thousand years later your little bitch of a son is about to kick your ass." Vicki laughed harshly.

Mikael screamed again. "I _will_ destroy him! How did you possess Rebekah?"

"The blonde and the blonde did it." Vicki answered.

Mikael bit into Rebekah's neck and began to drink. Vicki writhed in Rebekah's body, shuddering in pain as Mikael fed. "Who are the blondes?"

"You gotta ask? How limp are you to have that many blondes after you?" Vicki asked.

"You will tire of this eventually, my dear. You will know that defying me brings only pain. I have held vampires for centuries. I have seen great warriors shrivel away into nothing as I tore out everything they ever were." Mikael explained coldly, and he punched his daughter in the face.

"And how much did that help you in the end? Did they _function_ for you? Could they tell you their _names_?" Vicki asked.

"Can you tell me yours?" Mikael asked.

"Nina Dobrev," Vicki answered and I smiled in the distance.

"That was a lie." Mikael enjoyed Vicki's scream as he opened a vein in her face.

"Candice!" Vicki shrieked. "Candice Accola!"

"Stop. Lying." Mikael carefully broke a finger.

"Paul Wesley. Ian something or other. Lucy Lawless!" Vicki cried out.

"Tell me your name and I will stop," Mikael whispered. "Just your name. Tell me your name and you will know I can have mercy." Mikael reached down and punched Vicki's rib cage, breaking bones and digging inward.

"Lauren," Vicki choked out. "Help me."

<I'm here, Vicki,> I tried a long distance telepathic projection.

Vicki cocked her head.

"It can be over soon," Mikael explained. "Your name." Mikael's hand tightened around Rebekah's heart.

<I'm trying to help,> I told Vicki. I was, trying to project an illusion of lost pain. I wanted to just charge in. Maybe I'd even win, rescue her, but what if I lost? Mikael's will was immense, and I had almost no practice with my psychic abilities.

"Matty?" Vicki whispered.

"He's not here, love. Only me." Mikael answered. "What is your name?" He released his grip on Vicki's heart, but did not remove his hand.

I flipped into super speed and came closer. I hid behind a tree and tried to help more.

"I'm not going to..." Vicki gasped, and then screamed as Mikael bit her again.

The Original's attacks lacked rhyme or reason. I couldn't figure out how to protect her if I didn't know what she'd have to feel to not be in pain. Maybe I could give her a void? I tried that. Vicki's eyelids closed in front of the monster as she regained vision in her regrown eyeballs.

"No!" Mikael screamed and he pulled her eyes open.

<Can you hear me?> I tried to fill the void with sound.

"Yes," Vicki answered and my heart leapt.

"Tell me!" Mikael shouted and beat at Vicki.

<Can you still feel him?> I asked.

"For a second," Vicki whispered.

"What are prattling on about?" Mikael had pulled a knife and was beginning to flay back Rebekah's skin.

"Please, help me. I'll do anything," Vicki cried out.

"Just your name," Mikael pulled the knife back, and then he threw it right _through_ the tree. It seemed a thousand year old vampire was quite aware of his surroundings. I was hit by the remnants of the knife and by a lot of falling tree. Mikael had already pounced on me before I got my bearings.

"So there's more of you," Mikael smiled. "This will be fun."

"Teaches me to try and sneak up on a hunter," I quipped. Mikael drove a finger into my eye socket and I gasped as I felt it pop. Vampire pain was dulled, but nothing like the dulling of Immortal pain.

"Is everything a joke to you deviants?" Mikael asked.

"Not _her_ ," I answered angrily.

"Ah. So you love the parasite, then. If you want no harm to come to her you need merely tell me what I want to know." Mikael informed me.

I decided to let "love" slide, given he did not need more information. "Mikael, shut the fuck up." I had made people feel like they were on fire before, and I tried it on Mikael. He shouted and fell back from me. I was over by Vicki instantly, trying to rip off her chains.

"Insolent creature!" Mikael howled. The hunter was on top of me. "Did you think that would stop _me_?"

"No," I smiled. "I thought he could." I projected an image of Elijah speeding at Mikael, and Mikael jumped into it with a powerful blow that hit air. I kicked Mikael hard into the ground to follow up on that motion.

"You are no warrior!" Mikael spat. "You rely on tricks because you know you cannot win."

"Tricks like turning yourself into a vampire?" I asked. I flipped the psychic "fire" on again and Mikael simply burst forward to snap my neck. Fortunately I'd thought to make an illusion of myself standing slightly to the left of where I actually was, allowing me to punch Mikael into the ground again.

"A warrior takes every advantage. It is how you use what you have that proves who you are!" Mikael lunged wide, his eyes searching. "You are weak; pathetic! You can barely survive against me for all your witchcraft."

"Once an abuser, always an abuser? Did it make you feel _strong_ to hurt your children? Did their fear of you feed your _pride_?" I asked. I worked to distort Mikael's senses all around.

"I made my them strong!" Mikael screamed. "They have survived a thousand years! They are the greatest warriors the world has ever known!"

"Strong?" I laughed. "Have you _met_ them? Elijah is a failure and a hypocrite who can't know it because he's always saner than Klaus and stronger than everyone else. Rebekah is a spoiled brat who can barely keep her panties dry for a football player. Kol and Finn have spent their lives in boxes. Is that what you wanted out of your vampires?"

Mikael finally seized me properly. "The abomination has kept them enslaved with his weakness and his lies. Once he is gone they will be free."

I struggled with all my might as an Original, a psychic, and a rather limited witch to wriggle free. It didn't help. "He kills you," I told him.

"Were you taught the same lies as the girl?" Mikael asked, curiously.

"I've seen your future, Mikael. Klaus stakes you, _twice_. You claw your way out of Hell just for Klaus to kill you again."

Mikael pulled back his head, a look of concern on his face, but his grip never weakened. "You believe that. But how..." I felt the weight of Mikael's will strike my head like a spear. He saw through my eyes and memory as Freya cried and Mikael burst into flames on the television. "What on Earth?"

"It's not a lie!" I shouted. I had to get Vicki out of here. Preferably I'd be out of there, but I could not let him hurt Vicki like that anymore.

"You are insane." Mikael stated.

"I'm right," I answered. "I saw your world as a fucking TV show before I came here."

"That is..." Mikael considered carefully. "...new." He decided on. Mikael drove his mind into my head again, searching. I gasped and let it flow. All of it. I stopped resisting Mikael.

"Gah!" I heard a scream outside of my head and looked around, dazed. Vicki stood there in Rebekah's body, nails still hanging out of it, and wrapping chains around Mikael's head.

"Run!" We screamed at each other as we both grabbed the chains and tried to bring Mikael down. We stared at each other in confusion for a second. Mikael, for all the chains wrapped around his head, was too strong for the both of us to hold. I threw more illusion fire at Mikael, but he seemed to pissed to notice.

I heard a snap and saw the chains break off as Mikael managed to bite through them. I struggled to visualize how he'd managed that as Mikael's freer head smashed into Vicki's neck and began to feed. I saw Vicki writhe and then grow slower as Mikael drank down the blood in his daughter's body. A moment later I heard a dagger sink into Mikael's flesh. Lines of poison and desiccation stretched over Mikael's face and fixed it into his daughter's neck.

"Somehow this is exactly what I expected to find," I heard an amused voice. "So did you nincompoops expect to get rescued or just go with the flow?"

"Elena?" Vicki asked, confused.

"No, Vicki. It's the other Nina Dobrev," I answered, pained and tired and desperately needing some blood. "Hello, Katherine."

[hr][/hr]  
"Here, nice and tasty," Katherine said as she threw me a man in flannel and boots dressed for hiking. I briefly tried to not bite, but there was no way this man was surviving. I bit down into the man's neck, and Vicki bit into the other side a second later.

"Can you not default to murder next time?" I asked when I managed to pry my fangs away from my victim. "Blood bags or animals are preferable."

"You could just say 'thank you for saving me,' kid." Katherine pointed out. "Can you tell me why Elijah ran off without warning and left me a voicemail telling me to look out for people his mother sent to help? Is he under the delusion his mother is alive, again?"

"She _is_ alive," Vicki said. "She's the one who put us in Mikaelson bodies."

"Well that's new." Katherine frowned. "So you two dimwits are Mommy Original's idea of support against _Klaus_?"

"We contacted her, actually," I explained. "We worked together to get us all on Earth. Esther's working against Klaus, but doing so in what may be the least efficient and most counterproductive manner possible. Elijah is off to fulfill his mother's end of the bargain for us because he'd probably screw up actually _killing_ his brother."

"Interesting." Katherine cocked her head. "So what _are_ you two?"

"Huh. Do we share your name or not?" I asked Vicki.

Vicki smiled. "Call me Nina Dobrev."

I laughed. "So, 'Nina' here is my ally. I am a witch who is trapped in an incredibly hard to escape prison. My real body is confined there, so I am making due with the best replacement I can find."

"Original body; good choice." Katherine nodded approvingly.

"Kol and Rebekah Mikaelson. Two of the least glorious Originals, as judged by Klaus keeping us daggered in a box for decades." Vicki explained.

"Don't those daggers kill vampires who wield them?" I asked, gesturing at Mikael's desiccated body.

"Oh, yes." Katherine nodded very seriously. "There's no way that the Originals would plant a rumor like that."

"Ah, Curse of the Sun and the Moon gambit." I sighed.

"So, how organized is your faction right now?" I asked. "Who is on team-anti-Klaus?" I was curious what she would answer, as I already had a good idea.

"Elijah until you two showed up. Stefan wants to save Elena. Mason knows Klaus wants to kill me, so he's all in. Lexi and her boyfriend were talked into the team by Stefan. Luka's still working for Elijah, so he's either on board or going with his master on the new mission. That little witch, Bonnie, and Elena's baby vamp family are also pretty likely to help out."

"Not bad." I nodded. "Where did you get that dagger?"

"Mason was breaking into the Bennett basement for me and pulled it out. Elijah told us to look in there. Do you have any idea why there's _another_ Original I don't recognize in Sheila Bennett's basement?" Katherine asked. The doppelganger sounded tired.

"Another ally I brought in from the Other Side." I paused and weighed options. "I'll let him fill you in when he wakes up, but he's possessing the body of Finn, the eldest and possibly craziest of the Original Vampires."

"That description is horrifying." Katherine said in a deadpan.

"Did Elijah happen to tell you where the White Oak stash was hidden?" I asked, deciding to get to the point.

"There's a stash of White Oak?" Katherine looked excited. "The ancient tree that is the only way to kill the Originals wasn't _entirely_ burned?"

"Not the only way, but by far the easiest one. I think a sapling regrew, actually. Something dumb like that. Anyway, not much, but we told Elijah about it as a show of trust. I was hoping he'd leave you with it, but I guess he's not _that_ dumb." I smiled.

"Take that as a compliment," Vicki told Katherine. She looked much better now that she was fed.

"Alright. How fast do you think we can get to Bonnie or Luka?" I asked curiously. "I'm barely a witch right now, and there are some things we need to do as quickly as possible."

"What things?" Katherine asked.

"Find _Mikael's_ White Oak Stake. If we have that special wood, we have options, and not just the option of surprise stabbing Klaus or killing Mikael for real." I smiled. "A person can be used to find a connected object, just like it can go the other way around." I tapped Mikael's body.

"You're acting like you think you can kill Klaus." Katherine said. "You do know being very brave isn't the same thing as being very dumb, right?"

"Oh, he's stronger than all of us. He's probably smarter than I am, too. But if we have a witch, Elena, White Oak, a bunch of dead witches who might want Klaus dead, and a few werewolves, I think I can start changing the equation."

"You said you're a witch?" Katherine asked. She looked thoughtful.

"Among other things, yes. To be honest I am not entirely sure _what_ I am. My recent circumstances have been really strange. I'm like no witch you have other met," I answered.

"Ah." Katherine smiled. "I can work with that."

[hr][/hr]

 

The Mystic Grill was a reasonable neutral ground for a meeting with my nominal allies. I let vampire enhanced hearing give me a new experience as I listened to the live band.

Vicki looked around, unimpressed. "Did they really think live music would help? This is the only restaurant in town people can get a burger that doesn't taste like shit."

"I may know many things, Nina Dobrev, but the economics of small restaurants are not a thing I can advise you on." I assured her.

"You don't have to make fun of me," Vicki said, defensively.

"I just need to get used to it so I don't slip up," I shrugged. "I assume..." I paused. "You know, any conversation we have might be overheard here, so I will wait to ask you about it."

"Hello, guys!" Katherine walked in, dressed like Elena. Stefan Salvatore flanked her on one side and Mason Lockwood on the other.

"Ah, so you're Katherine's backup Damon," I smiled at Mason, who frowned. "Pleased to meet you."

"Do you have to be a dick?" Stefan asked.

It was a good question. "In this body my emotions are heightened. I was never the least impulsive person. I hope my good qualities will also be heightened during my stay."

"So he said yes," Katherine nodded. "Informative."

"Please sit down." I pulled out a chair for Katherine. "Will others be joining us?"

"Not this time," Katherine smiled.

I looked around. Lexi was at the bar, drinking and pretending to be oblivious. Bonnie and Luka were playing pool. So she did not trust me entirely. Fair.

"So what are you two getting out of this?" I asked Stefan and gestured to Mason.

"He is worried for his nephew and brother." Stefan gestured at Mason. "Klaus needs to kill a werewolf to complete the ritual, and Tyler is defenseless without him."

"I don't want anyone else to die, either." Mason explained.

"Noble." I nodded. "Surprised you've survived in Mystic Falls this long."

"I want Elena to live, while Katherine and Elijah want Klaus dead. We can mostly agree on plans to fight Klaus." Stefan added. "Katherine says you made a deal with Klaus's mother?"

"She's watched her children for a thousand years on the Other Side. She can't find peace until they're dead or at least happy. Klaus won't grow happy, so she has to make sure he's dead. If she has other moral considerations, they're probably more abstract than her concrete motivations."

"Got it." Stefan nodded. "And she got you into the bodies of Originals?"

"She has done that, and set Elijah on a path to help me in a more direct fashion. It was her idea, as she worries Elijah doesn't have the stomach to kill his brother. I'm sure you can all relate, Katherine excepted." I watched Katherine pout and was not disappointed by it.

"Why does she trust you so much?" Stefan asked.

Reasonable question. "Honestly, I don't think she does. She'd be happy if we stopped Klaus from breaking the curse, but she's got an entirely different and _much_ crazier plan to save her family. I want to pull this off for fairly abstract reasons, myself. If I can prove I am a good partner for a coalition, then next time I need to do so I will have some weight to what I can offer."

"You say you're a crippled witch in the body of an Original." Katherine stated. "You think you can use a special stake to kill Klaus?"

"To kill an Original you need a weapon that can break through their protections and someone strong enough to wield it. Channeling a place where a hundred witches died is one plan for that, but it probably leads to the deaths of several innocent people. The White Oak Stake, capitalized for emphasis, is a weapon that can kill an Original, but none of us are strong enough to be sure of using it successfully." I paused with some dramatic flare. "The tree can take away eternal life, but it can also give it. My plan is to use the power in the Stake to make a creature that can kill Klaus in a fair fight. Then I'd expect Katherine and Stefan to cheat like hell and make sure the fight is as unfair as possible, but Klaus will cheat too, so that's just evening the playing field."

"Wouldn't that leave us with a brand new monster?" Mason asked.

"Of course. We simply have to find the right person for it. For a variety of reasons, my nomination is Tyler Lockwood, your nephew, but that is extremely tentative," I explained.

"Why _him_?" Mason looked shocked.

"Klaus was made into the Original Hybrid because he had an inactive werewolf gene that activated when he killed a human. I think it would be possible to layer vampire strength onto a latent werewolf and then activate or twist the gene in such a way as to make Tyler into a powerful champion. It would be something like what Klaus wants to be, a werewolf unbound by the moon and a vampire who can walk in the sun. Preferably I would take care of the various psychological flaws of being a Hybrid, but I also trust Tyler more than I trust any of you," I answered.

"Just curious, why the hell is _Tyler Lockwood_ the person you trust, here?" Katherine asked, looking annoyed.

"I'm a psychic," I answered simply. "I've seen an alternate future where Klaus breaks the curse and turns Tyler into a Hybrid. He reacts as well as anyone possibly could, under the circumstances. I admit I also don't care a huge amount about him, as right now he's kind of a dick and a bit of a rapist, but I like the Tyler of that future I saw."

"You want to do mad science on Tyler!" Mason shouted. No one in the Grill seemed to notice.

"Mad _magic_. There's proof of concept scattered about, and I honestly think I have a better handle on the required magic than Esther did when she made the Originals. I could also do it to your brother, if you think that'd be a better move, but I trust him less with becoming one of the strongest creatures on the planet. If we can't find a suitable inactive werewolf, I can imagine alternatives." I shrugged.

"Damn." Vicki patted me on the shoulder. "I love this part."

"Let's table making baby werewolf into a monster for now. What are these alternatives?" Katherine asked.

"In the future I saw, Esther made one last vampire with the mission to kill her children ..." I trailed off. Best not to mention she wanted _all_ vampires dead for now. "It had a fatal weakness which I choose not to articulate for obvious reasons. This has the problem of being a rather more limited tool, in part due to the weakness and in part due to lacking the various useful traits of a werewolf. I also believe a living Hybrid would allow for useful improvements to the quality of life of the werewolf race, due to other visions I had. The details are unlikely to matter much right now, and I can probably replicate the principles of transformation control without a Hybrid."

Stefan, Katherine, and Mason managed to be speechless. Vicki pumped up her arm. "Yes!"

"You seem excited," Katherine snipped, trying to regain control of the situation.

"Comes with being a vampire," Vicki said defensively. "Right now, you can't ignore this guy. He has too much information that you absolutely need. You're going to work with us because we have what you want. You're going to have to scramble so long as you want Klaus dead. Hell, if you want just about _anything_ you need to work with Jeff's vision."

"I'm five hundred years old, little girl. You're _unbelievably_ cocky." Katherine hissed.

"You're a rabbit who has evaded a wolf for five hundred years," I answered. "We can watch and marvel at the cleverness of the rabbit who can evade a wolf again and again, but in the end the rabbit runs to survive while the wolf merely runs to eat. I'm the man with a rifle, and I'm here to kill the wolf. Are you going to help, get out of the way, or _run_?"

Katherine looked very uncomfortable. Stefan was smiling.

"I'll talk to Tyler," Mason said after a minute. "We'll have questions, if he even agrees to sit down with you."

"He's a teenage boy. I am offering him superpowers and a chance to kill vampires. I don't expect him to rebel." I smiled. "Even if he does, surely there's _one_ brother or sister of the werewolf tribe who wants to free you from the moon?"

"What do you need?" Stefan asked. "If you're preparing to go after Klaus, and you're talking with us, you need something, don't you?"

"Bonnie and Luka, or any witch you can get on board, really. I'm in a vampire body, which limits my magic to parlor tricks." I paused. "Also, blood. Elena's blood has powerful magical properties, which is why Klaus needs it. I'd also like Katherine's blood, which has similar attributes, for comparison. I'd also like blood from as many of you as possible, for experiments and comparisons. Blood bags, as many as you can afford, so we don't lose control and start murdering the locals. If it requires separate negotiation besides simply talking to Luka Martin, I also want to look at his father's collection of grimoires, to help in my studies and the production of a spell."

"Is that all?" Katherine scowled.

"A place to stay would be nice but not critical. Maybe some money, if the Salvatores have reserves. I will pay back anything more quantifiable I end up using up, such as blood and cash, once I am in my true body and back on Earth; I expect to be able to repay such debts rapidly and ethically when I am situated properly. I assume the less quantified aspects of our deal are repaid when Klaus dies." I answered.

"It's a lot, but it is reasonable." Stefan answered. "Anyone's blood in particular?"

"Yours to compare with Katherine's and Elena's, so I can compare the effects of vampirism and doppelgangerdom. Lexi's, to see if another sire line does anything interesting. Jenna and Jeremy's, for much the same reason. Mason's, for werewolf blood to experiment with. Tyler and his father, for comparison with Mason's. When I talk with Bonnie and Luka I will ask them directly about the use of their blood, as I understand the blood of a witch may have personalized properties." I considered further. "I have all the Original blood I could need, and I don't think there's anything else I need that can be accessed reasonably."

"You promise you can kill Klaus?" Katherine asked.

"I promise you I will do my best to kill Klaus," I answered. "If I can succeed, well, we both know that many have wanted Klaus dead."

**Lauren**

I slept in a hotel in Virginia Beach before I inspected possible boats. I had absolutely no idea how to sail a boat, but being a witch came with certain perks. I brought in several Travelers from the Other Side who understood how to take me to Silas's island and set them to finding the right one while I recovered from the long drive.

I studied Esther's grimoire when I woke up. Jeff thought a vampirism spell was a good idea, so I should study it to either help or explain pointedly why this was a terrible idea.

Esther's graphical notes were easy to parse if I didn't pay attention to the details and just let my intuition guide me to what they meant. Esther had lived among the werewolves for two decades and studied under Ayana, a descendant of Qetsiyah. I read over the teasing hints Qetsiyah's immortality spell that Esther had learned; it could not be cast on someone who was living or someone who was dead, it needed energy from an eternal life to bind it to the world, it required energy from something that was constant and cyclical, and it required the most intimate congress with the living.

Esther had initially despaired over the requirements, but put them together piece by piece. The most intimate congress with the living was to drink their very blood. Something constant and cyclical was the sun. An eternal life was found in the White Oak Tree worshiped by the locals. Finally, to cast it on her children, she used the blood of a doppelganger to ensure their rebirth and had Mikael drive a sword through their hearts to kill them, turning them into a form standing between life and death that could take the full power of the spell.

It was obvious to me that Esther's version was brilliant but messy. What Qetsiyah had used instead was however beyond my ability to guess. I was sure that the creation of the doppelgangers was an integral part of the spell, but I could see an argument that their cycle of rebirth was constant enough with Silas and Amara alive to replace for the sun's constant cycle, or they could have somehow made Silas and Amara neither alive or dead as copies of the true person, or maybe there was some way their reborn lives counted as eternal in the same way White Oak did.

Esther did not stop with simple indestructibility, and neither had Qetsiyah. Silas had been made a powerful psychic, even if his strength and speed somehow came from simply immortality, and that I strongly doubted. Esther's children had been given even more dramatic increases to their strength, speed, agility, durability and senses.

Studying the grimoire, I found long passages about the werewolf neighbors Esther had studied. When the werewolves were first cursed, the mortal form had no powers at all. Werewolves were pure beast and curse on their fellows. However, using the blood of a doppelganger, a shaman found a way to bind a spell that would normally give temporary increases to a human's senses to the beast within, ensuring the spell would last forever. The werewolf families had scrambled to do their own versions of the spell, and discovered different powers the beast could make permanent. Eventually the werewolf lines share their powers and none of them retained unique ones. Esther had theorized that her own spells, which could heighten the aspects of a human, could be bound to the immortality she was granting her children.

Esther had theorized that enhancing the emotions of her children would enable their sanity to survive for centuries. She thought it would make them loyal to each other and ensure they would fight with all their hearts. She saw this as a feature, not a flaw.

Esther had long notes on the use of herbs in telepathy and theorized that like the spells to heighten strength, they could become everlasting spells through calling on the power of immortality.

I shook my head when I closed the grimoire. Esther honestly seemed to have no clue as to how the weaknesses had cropped up, and she blamed it on separate curses unleashed by spirits. This seemed like a limited explanation, but it felt like a start to understanding where she went wrong.

Jeff and Silas both craved blood. If Qetsiyah's pure version of the spell had that flaw, then perhaps it would be a curse Tyler would have to bear as a champion against the Originals. If I found a way to live forever, it might become my curse as well.

I had to face that I wanted to live forever. There was no use denying it, and I had to plan accordingly. I enjoyed my life, and I had a lot to do. I didn't want to die of accident or disease, or feel my body wither away over decades. Vampire powers were viscerally cool, and I wanted them. I wanted to be a witch more than a vampire, but I did not see a reason I needed to choose.

Maybe I simply lacked the wisdom to see what was wrong with living forever.


	13. Chapter 13

**Lauren**

I sulked. I really wished the Travelers were not the easiest source of help in this mission, but I really had no excuse not to use them. The Travelers wanted the prison I wanted out of, and we'd been working together for a long time.

Seriously, though: fuck the Travelers.

I studied Emily and Esther's grimoires a bit obsessively to keep myself busy. Emily had studied what Esther had done, meaning I could compare the intent to the result quite well.

It was commonly believed that Nature required a balance when it came to magic; in concept if not in mechanics. Every magical creature had a weakness to help mitigate their strengths. Some believed that this was a natural process, while others claimed that spirits took advantage of a mystical imbalance to 'complete' the template with a curse to help defend their own descendants. I believed that a mix of the two was most probable, but I lacked the evidence to be sure.

I was fairly sure that the way vampires burned in the sun was actually a curse by spirits; daylight rings were too easy if the "allergy" to the sun was some inherent complication, but a protection spell could mitigate an actual curse relatively easily. In contrast, vervain seemed have been used in various mind control and anti-mind control spells before Esther made her vampires, so it was probably a more natural problem for psychics to have. I suspected that the way vampires needed to be invited into homes was another curse, though I had a vague idea it was amplifying some kind of existing issue instead of making one out of nothing; werewolf speed was a thing Esther seemed to have had difficulty with according to her notes and it did not seem to work in the same way the heightening spell did in other aspects.

If Jeff's idea of creating a new Hybrid was going to work I would need to understand how it had worked on Klaus. An Original vampire who activated the werewolf gene gained control over the transformation into a werewolf and stopped burning in the sunlight; even staking became a less viable tactic according to Jeff. If imbalance caused weaknesses it seemed that more powerful creatures would have more severe weaknesses, but if anything the opposite seemed true in general. Werewolf regeneration helped them power through vampire weaknesses, and it seemed that heightening a mortal's power with immortality granted them control over werewolf transformation. It seemed that the spell that made the Originals made them vulnerable to curses such as Klaus's and harm from the sun, but would that be a problem if we tried to empower Tyler? If the Hybrid Curse was exploiting a natural consequence of the creature's power, could that imbalance be exploited again, would the curse breaking close that avenue of assault, or was Nature's objection to the Hybrid's creation "used up" in some way?

Emily's notes on werewolves were far smaller than Esther's, but she had comments for herself on trying to cure a vampire bitten by a werewolf. It seemed that werewolves produced a substance that would cause a vampire to rapidly go insane and die. Emily reported that humans were immune and she expressed mystification as to how the venom was a part of the werewolf condition when vampires were created long after werewolves.

Perhaps vampires happened to be hurt by a venom designed to hurt some other species, perhaps ones werewolves had wiped out.

I decided that the safest way to cast a spell on a latent werewolf would be to use spirit magic. If the spirits participated, any curses or side effects would at least by _known_ with a reasonable degree of certainty, and that kind of power being channeled from spirits would likely prevent the complications such as insanity or surprise consequences that often arose when using the loopholes found in dark magic.

If I could not contact the spirits, or if they refused to help, then the best sources of power were either the Originals or the full moon. The full moon had the problem of happening right when Klaus did his ritual, and using sacrificial magic would involve a lot of unknown factors when applied to the immortality spell. I did not like the unpredictability of using sacrificial magic or the timeline of using the full moon, so hopefully Jeff could pull another secret out of his ass and find a set of spirits who would help.

**Wyld**

I waited for the local witches in the Mystic Falls Public Library. I worked on a library computer and began some internet searches.

The first question in the back of my mind was on things that would be truly odd if they existed in both my world and this one. _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ existed in this universe, and Kendra's actress looked exactly like Emily Bennett. I considered what it meant, and I had absolutely no clue. Perhaps the women, who was apparently named Bianca Lawson, was a witch and it was family resemblance, but that honestly wouldn't explain a lot.

I searched on what I remembered of the cast from The Vampire Diaries. _Degrassi_ had a "Nicky Dobrev" who looked rather like Nina Dobrev and Elena Gilbert, but not exactly. "Candice Accola" produced a set of social media profiles that could easily be false positives as I couldn't get a picture. "Paul Wesley" didn't produce a famous person, but there was an IMDB page without a picture for an actor with that name and a birth date of 1982. It seemed the _main_ cast of The Vampire Diaries either did not exist or were distorted enough that no show was coming into existence.

Looking at the creative team I could remember from opening titles and essays I found that TVD's show runner Julie Plec was apparently a producer for a show I remembered called _Kyle XY_ , but there was no evidence of anything named "The Vampire Diaries" in the media outside of an album called "Vampire Diaries" by an artist I vaguely recognized called Saving Jane. L.J. Smith had written _The Secret Circle_ and several other things I did not recognize.

Outside of breaking into the houses of people who were probably innocent and unlikely to know anything, this seemed like an unproductive path.

Searching on things I remembered in-universe such as "Davina Claire" was more productive, providing a Facebook and Twitter account with the face I recognized from _The Originals_. "Marcel Gerard" produced a few newspaper pictures and articles. Google pasta with the Mikaelson names produced a few random historical records that were absolutely Originals fucking around, but nothing more useful.

Searching on "Original Vampires" got me to a handful of poorly built websites with amusingly inaccurate information on the Originals. The commentary on the Originals led me to what appeared to be a loose association of websites created by werewolves. None of the werewolf sites I found seemed to have any concern for a masquerade and the real mechanics of werewolf life were laid out clearly on them; including FAQs for newly activated wolves. Werewolves generally had enough sense not to say where they _were_ , though, which was sensible given they were hunted by vampires.

"Silas and Amara" related searches kicked up a lot of occult beliefs and academic papers on ancient religion. I had not really expected anything better then that for those two. I was researching the Immortals when Bonnie Bennett and Luka Martin arrived.

"So you're the psychic," Bonnie said by way of introduction. "Emily says you're the nice one."

"Hello, Bonnie." I smiled. "I'm glad to meet you in person. I am sorry I got you possessed, but I had no real alternatives at the time."

"Damon died," Bonnie answered. "Was it really worth it?"

"You don't have to believe me on this, but your grandmother died by now in the original timeline and that was largely thanks to Damon." I was surprised Bonnie cared at all about the dead vampire. Bonnie looked speechless.

"We're not here to fight." Luka pulled up a chair.

"Ah, the other half of the famous Martin Witches." I smiled at Luka. "I gotta admit, your dad, Jonas, he impressed the hell out of me. He's one of the strongest witches I saw that wasn't some kind of dark super-witch. Elijah is good at picking allies."

"Huh, so you've been working with Dad. I hear he's living the high life for a ghost." Luka answered. "Spirits talk, and the ones I spoke to sounded jealous."

"Weird magical prison dimensions are more comfortable than the Other Side. I honestly want to see if I can do something about Qetsiyah's stuff when I'm done with the other things I am working on, but that's pretty abstract right now." I offered Luka me hand. "Jeff Foxworth, psychic, witch, and immortal."

"Immortal?" Luka asked.

"I mean, there's things about it that I don't understand, but I seem to have a spell on me similar to the one on the Originals. I have no _good_ idea of why I have any of the powers I do." I shrugged. "So did you bring what I asked for?"

"Here," Luka opened his bag. "Cash and blood, if it will help me get my sister away from Klaus."

"Honestly I think she is fine working for him, or maybe she was just messed up when he kidnapped her? Being a slave to a crazy vampire who wants you to break a curse might be classic Stockholm Syndrome."

Luka frowned. "Greta wouldn't want to work for someone like that. Klaus is a monster."

""This is excellent." I picked up one the vials. "I'd like some blood from each of you. I don't know how it might help, but it easily could prove important."

"You want my blood on a maybe?" Bonnie asked.

"A 'maybe I save Elena's life' and a 'maybe I get Luka's sister from Klaus.' Yes, a maybe, but an important one." I examined Elena's blood with my eyes, which produced absolutely no insight, but made me feel a bit better.

"Point taken," Bonnie nodded. "Stefan said you don't think Klaus will want Elena dead?"

"You need the blood of a human doppelganger to make a new Hybrid. Most of the point of breaking the curse for Klaus is making more Hybrids. His mother was trying to make sure this never happened." I answered.

"Why does he want that?" Luka asked.

"He feels alone. He thinks maybe if there's more creatures like him, he'll be free of that. Also Hybrids are really powerful. Don't burn in the sun, stronger than vampires centuries older then they are, have the bite of a werewolf that can kill any vampire but an Original, and have a bond of loyalty to their sire. They may even be able to have children, though it might have been weirdness involving Klaus and not a general part of their template." I rambled a bit.

"You sound like you want it to happen," Bonnie said cautiously.

"Being a werewolf _sucks_. There's less drastic ways to save them from that, but I'd rather be a Hybrid than a werewolf or a traditional vampire. Admittedly, I am thinking of an idealized form of being a Hybrid, not the actual lives the Hybrids lived as slaves to Klaus." I shrugged.

"Stefan said you wanted to do something like that to Tyler?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes. Make Tyler into a kind of Original Hybrid like Klaus would be. Have him wield the stake that can kill Klaus into the monster's heart. After that it might be possible to do a kind of ritual when he gets married and pass on his transformation control to the other werewolves." I explained. "That is a lot of why I want to work with the two of you."

"This sounds like a crime against Nature." Luka said. "You're talking about creating a race of monsters."

"We have races of monsters. What if we could clamp down on the werewolf gene, stop the bloodline violence curse? Humanity gains a line of defense against predation. Nature's balance seems pretty messed up, so amplifying one side might work better than trying to destroy another," I suggested.

"It doesn't work that way, does it?" Bonnie asked. She sounded unsure.

"If Nature disagrees, does it matter?" I asked.

Luka and Bonnie looked at each other.

"Nature's not getting your sister back for you. Nature's not saving Elena. If a witch fights the balance she doesn't lose her powers. Why is going against Nature bad?" I asked.

"I mean, you're kind of wrong. Witches who go against the balance, they do weaken. If you use dark magic, there are real consequences. Everything does have a balance. Witches who rely on dark magic go crazy or die." Luka explained. "You _should_ know this."

"People can use dark magic for centuries," I said. "Dahlia, Esther's sister, is a thousand years old and a very dark witch."

"I have no idea who that is, but an exception doesn't mean the rule isn't real. I know dark magic can get inside your head, mess with your moral compass. If you don't nurture your powers they won't help you grow." Luka explained.

I considered. Lauren's own explanation of prices and balance were not entirely different. "Alright. I may have let my powers and knowledge go to my head. That being said, is there a specific reason that creating a vampire to kill Klaus would be worse than letting Klaus break the curse and make his Hybrids?"

Luka looked thoughtful. "I guess it makes sense."

"So then, can I have access to your father's grimoire collection?" I asked. "I looked over many of them before, but I did not have a lot of time to do so."

"How did you manage _that_?" Bonnie asked.

"Okay, so here's the mechanics of my imprisonment," I explained. "The Gemini Coven have a spell that allows you to create a kind of copy of the world. You cast it, and you find yourself in a world exactly like the one you left, minus the people. Every day it resets itself to the day when the world was created. I _think_ blow back from a spell put my body in that dimension. That means your father's grimoires are there. I did not work with him for long, though."

"Cool..." Luka looked confused, again.

"Huh. That sounds really creepy." Bonnie said.

"It is. Actually, what little I know of it came from visions of you being stuck in something like that." I added. Then I wondered if telling her that was necessary.

"How many visions did you have of me?" Bonnie asked, looking a bit indignant.

"My visions mostly dealt with Mystic Falls. I honestly don't know _why_ that is the case, as those visions were uncontrolled. I saw a lot about the next few years in this town and how they would have gone without my help. Originals rolled in, made the town their plaything, then left to New Orleans. I got a few visions of New Orleans as well, but my visions didn't _just_ follow the Originals. I actually know an incredibly uncomfortable amount about the relationship drama that unfolded in the timeline I saw." I admitted.

"So you're a 'he loves me, he loves me not' kind of prophet?" Bonnie giggled.

"Mostly you dated Jeremy Gilbert," I told her.

Bonnie's jaw dropped.

Luka looked scandalized. "She dated a vampire?"

"Actually, no. I'm not sure why he was turned in this universe but not the main one I saw. Jeremy became a rather impressive vampire hunter, came back from the dead a lot, killed an Original. If he was not already a vampire he'd be high up in my list of people to give magical superpowers to." I explained.

"How long _is_ this list?" Luka asked.

"Huh." I thought about it. "It's contextual and biased. I don't trust Stefan or Elena even though they're _good_ people because they are too good at manipulating people for me to trust my judgment about them. Caroline Forbes is top of the list. Maybe Alaric, your history teacher who was a huge deal in my visions but seems to have vanished without a trace in this timeline. A witch in New Orleans named Davina Claire, who is one of the only people in my visions I _really_ trust." I paused again. "No offense, Bonnie. You're good, but you're swept up in vampire drama and manipulations in a way that I have trouble with." I wished Vicki was here to see this, but she was needed to help Damon recover from being daggered.

"Really?" Bonnie asked.

"He's a vampire, but ask Jeremy about Elena, sometime. Dig deep," I said. "Anyway, this is kind off off-topic. Does anyone know where that weird witch burning ground is, yet?"

"Not yet," Luka admitted. "Elijah thought it was the key to killing Klaus, but he didn't have a weapon that could kill Klaus, either."

"If you find them I'd like to speak with them. Work with them, really. A hundred dead witches is a lot of knowledge and a lot of power. It's not as important with doppelganger blood, though." I sighed happily as I looked at the vials of blood for Elena Gilbert, Katherine Pierce and Stefan Salvatore. "I can teach you how to use doppelganger blood, as well as Mikael, to channel great power safely. One of my visions showed the use of sacrificial magic on the Originals, and they cannot die to such petty spells. This enables channeling a nearly limitless battery of magical power." I paused. "Well, not the equal of the hundred dead witches or the full moon, but better than almost anything else."

"You practice sacrificial magic?" Luka asked curiously.

"Traditional magic from my own reserves and nature, spirit magic from the denizens of the Other Side, sacrificial magic of dead animals, humans or supernatural beings, and dark magic that defies Nature itself, I know how to use a lot of spells. I even learned techniques from the Travelers, which can be surprisingly effective in the hands of a capable witch. Really, if covens shared more knowledge I doubt they would be preyed on so easily by vampires. Perhaps I am being ignorant, though." I answered.

"Can you teach me?" Bonnie asked.

"Straight to the point. I _will_ teach you. I am in Kol's body, which means I cannot channel. I can cast spells, but I have almost nothing to cast _with_. That is where a lot of tricks the Travelers use come in handy. If I want to use my knowledge I need someone else to use it." I watched Bonnie, who was clearly trying to hold back excitement.

"Bonnie, just a sec. You do realize this guy is _completely insane,_ right?" Luka asked.

"A year ago I didn't know I was a witch. If I had to tell someone everything that has happened to me since then I'd sound pretty crazy, too." Bonnie explained. "Jeff is willing to help us. I think we take his help."

[hr][/hr]

"Come on in." Elena said.

"Thank you, Miss Gilbert." I smiled and entered the Salvatore Boarding House in Kol's body.

"Damon says you stole my necklace," Elena stated.

"You can have it back when we have a doorway to this dimension. It's Stefan's ex-girlfriend's anyway," I told her.

"What?" Elena looked taken aback.

"What?" Stefan asked, looking even more confused.

"The 1920s. You were in the height of a ripper binge and didn't notice the blackouts. You met up with Klaus and Rebekah. Klaus compelled you to forget, but you found Rebekah's necklace on the floor. You decided it meant hope or something, so kept it until you met Elena." I explained. "Honestly it doesn't make much sense to me, but it is what it is."

"Stefan dated an Original?" Elena asked.

"I'd say he dated two, since Klaus was gay as hell for Stefan." I reconsidered. "Sorry, forget that; I am being homophobic and inaccurate. Klaus wants to find people he belongs with, and Stefan in the 1920s was exactly that."

"Cut it with the psychic shit." Damon entered the room in Finn's body; Vicki trailed Damon in Rebekah's.

"It was just getting good," Vick pouted.

"No one asked you, _Nina_ ," Damon glared at her.

"Oh, my mistake." I smiled at Damon. "Nina, would you care to give your opinions and insights into my behavior to the room?"

"Those two deserve it." Vicki answered and leaned against the wall.

"Who is she again?" Stefan asked.

"She wants to retain her privacy on that if we can. Klaus has the habit of murdering the families of people who annoy him, so if no one knows who is in Rebekah's body the 'Dobrev' family is safe," I explained.

"Oh come on," Damon growled. "She's gonna slip up even if nobody else does."

"I could use the stake on you, you know," Vicki snapped back.

"The stake that nobody has actually _found_ , yet." Damon pointed out.

"Bonnie and Luka are grabbing some things for the spell. It shouldn't take long if they aren't ambushed." I said. Then I considered what I had said. "This is Mystic Falls, so an ambush is not out of the question."

"Fair point," Stefan nodded. "Want me to check up on them?"

"Please do," I answered and Stefan left the house.

"Are you alright?" Elena asked Vicki. "Katherine said it was really bad when she found you."

Vicki frowned. "Like you care."

"Of course I care." Elena answered. "No one deserves _that_."

"You could've-" Vicki stopped herself. "Sorry. Thank you, Elena. I am doing better. Vampires are great at repression."

"Yeah." Elena nodded. "Do you want anything?"

"A lot, but nothing relevant," I answered. "I mean, I always want fresh human blood."

"There's some in a cooler downstairs," Elena told me.

"Nina, care to join me?" I asked.

"God, yes. Looking at her is making me hungry." Vicki pranced to my side and we began walking.

"Don't you need to ask where to go?" Elena asked, sounding amused.

"Nope," Vicki answered with a grin, and we left her to stew that information over.

[hr][/hr]  
"I really do need to practice compulsion," I told Vicki. "I mean, I am clearly not as good as Silas at it. I need practice and more of this." I gestured at the empty blood bags.

"You just want a reason to pig out and cute girls talk to you," Vicki laughed.

"Be that as it may, I don't know if Mikael ignored my psychic fires because he's a thousand years old or because I _suck_ at being a psychic." I examined an empty blood bag.

"Fair point. But like, how do you practice compulsion while being remotely ethical about it?" Vicki asked, thoughtfully. "I mean, I guess there's precision or subtlety training we could do together, but anything based on strength has to be going up against a stronger will, right? You can't make people struggle with all their might against you if you order them to eat a different flavor of ice cream."

"I'd ask experts, but I'm not sure if there are any." I nodded. "Compulsion on the show just seemed binary."

"Show?" I heard a laugh.

"Hello, Katherine." I frowned. This could be bad.

"I could help you," Katherine said as she glided up between me and Vicki. "Do you mind explaining what you meant?"

"It's a nest of particularly cocaine addicted gerbils in my head," I explained. "I'm fairly sure I have two entirely separate memories of growing up. It'd take way too long to explain why talking about a show made sense." I rambled.

"Even I don't buy that," Vicki laughed.

"Elijah clearly left me in good hands," Katherine shook her head.

"Huh." I paused. "I had a convenient idea." I smiled at Vicki. "Hold her."

Vicki was quite eager to grab Katherine and hold her against the wall.

"So, you're guzzling vervaine like a good girl, but my psychic powers don't come from Esther's spell." I pontificated. " **You will remember nothing about coming down here, besides finding us kissing. You will go upstairs remembering we shooed you away violently.** " Katherine struggled. "Vicki, let her go now." Katherine blurred into super speed and was gone.

" _Really_?" Vicki asked. Vicki's look was more intense than I expected.

"It seemed like the best option." I paused. Damon arrived a moment later. "Guys, don't be rough. Katherine was coming down to tell you Bonnie and Luka arrived."

"Playing rough is fun, though." I complained.

"Oh god. You three are going to play with the nerd shit for hours of witchcraft I don't understand." Vicki shuddered theatrically. "Damon, please save me and give me a distraction."

"My pleasure." Damon grinned and the two vampires walked away.

[hr][/hr]

The witches and I set up in the Salvatore's dungeon cell portion of the cellar. The living Salvatores, descended from a half-brother of Damon and Stefan, had made sure this house could hold an angry vampire; it made a good place to store a daggered Original.

"Alright, I assume the two of you know how to do a basic locator spell, right?" I asked. The two nodded.

"Why would he hide the stake, anyway?" Bonnie asked. "It's his big weapon against Klaus, why not keep it on him?"

"That thing can kill him. One bad day, and someone turns it against him. Keep it nearby, but don't carry it, and he can access it when he knows for sure Klaus is close." I thought, then amended, "At least that's my guess. I never asked him."

Luka did the honors, sitting down by Mikael's head. I pried open Mikael's hand and drew out some of his blood as Bonnie pulled out a map of Mystic Falls. " _Anta Cotis Syrum, Anta Cotis Syrum."_ Luka closed his eyes. The blood moved across the map and stopped in what was marked as Lockwood property. "It's in a well nearby. It's dark in there," He said.

"Ah." I smiled. "I bet I know that well. Send Mason out to get the stake, the well's full of vervain if Mikael didn't just put his stake in a random well."

"Mikael's a vampire; how could he get it out if he put it in a pool of vampire killing acid?" Bonnie asked.

"Compulsion, allies, having the strength and will to accept a little pain if it gets what he wants? I'm more interested in how he knew a well had vervain in it." I stood there and considered thoughtfully.

"Mason did something like that with a moonstone a while ago," Bonnie said. "Jeremy pulled Stefan out of the well."

"Jeremy Gilbert," I mused. "Boyfriend of Anna, one of the people who can summon Mikael."

"No way." Bonnie frowned. "Jeremy wouldn't do that."

"Jeremy trusted Elijah, then?" I asked. "He thought all you had to do was listen to Elijah, let two people get killed, have Elena die and expect her to come back, and then to kill him with a magical power source you hadn't actually found yet?"

Bonnie looked uncomfortable. "He wanted to just leave town, but Elena was afraid Klaus would get revenge."

"It is circumstantial evidence, but I am willing to blame Jeremy Gilbert for finding Mikael and waking him up. Second most likely person to do that is Katherine, of course. Third..." I paused. "Your grandmother comes to mind, Bonnie. Was she worried for your safety in the middle of all of this?"

"Can't we just agree it was Katherine's fault?" Bonnie asked angrily. "She is always looking to sell us out."

"Katherine also knows Mason and Pearl, so she is a logical suspect. She daggered Mikael, but that doesn't mean she didn't bring him out of his coma." I looked at Mikael's closed eyes. "Honestly it's not like bringing Mikael into play was a bad idea, it's just playing with fire. Well, more like going into a swimming pool full of gasoline and deciding to dance around with sparklers." I stood up. "I'm going to get the stake before something awful happens, which it will in this town. Either of you coming with me?"

"Do I have a choice?" Luka asked.

"Having a witch would help with surprises, but it seems like it is a job for a werewolf," I answered and walked out of the room. Bonnie ended up following me.

"Hey." Damon was back and Vicki was with him. "She did the juju you needed for now?"

"I did," Bonnie answered.

"Good. Now I can say that it was her Grams that daggered me." Damon frowned with Finn's face.

"What!?" Bonnie shouted.

"I went to check up on her, touch base, speak to the woman who could kick my ass, all of that, and we got to talking about Elijah's crazy plans. Did you know that he wants to find a place where a whole lot of witches died and have his witch channel it?" Damon asked.

"Yes. I absolutely knew that. I may have failed to communicate that to you," I explained.

"Ah, so the place Emily was burned was the place her ancestors, those witches, were burned. Did you know I was keeping track of Emily when she died?" Damon asked, smiling.

"Huh, so you know the place Elijah was looking for." I nodded.

"Exactly. So talking with Gramma Bennett she seemed to think that if anyone risked dying due to all that power it should be _her_ , not Bonnie. I 'respected her choices' and agreed to take her there. When we got there, she stabbed me in the back." Damon finished.

"Disconcerting." I nodded. "So Sheila had the dagger that got you, and then Katherine used it on Mikael, but where did Sheila get it?" I wondered.

"Why would she betray you?" Bonnie asked. "You're helping us."

"No clue." Damon shrugged.

"Um..." I remembered my talk with Lauren. "Some details may have slipped my mind. Damon, get Mason Lockwood so I can send him to get the White Oak Stake. Bonnie, we have another tracking spell to do."

[hr][/hr]

I found Sheila Bennett sitting in the dark in a dingy motel when I broke down the door.

"Compelled?" Vicki asked.

"She's a witch." I frowned. "She can't be compelled."

"Am I a witch?" Sheila asked. Her face was stressed, ashen.

"Oh my god." I shook my head. "Bonnie! I need you to check something." Bonnie came in, away from the safe distance I'd advised her to stand at, and looked at her Grams with worry. "You can detect vampires on a touch, right?"

"Yes. Why?" Bonnie asked.

"I need you to touch your Grams," I said. Bonnie darted forward, and then she screamed. Sheila's face was going veiny and her eyes were red.

"Evil yet practical," I commented. "Originals can't compel witches, but they can compel vampires. It looks like Klaus had a witch he wanted to compel and made her into a vampire."

"Wouldn't Damon have realized he was in the car with another vampire?" Vicki asked.

"If it was that easy, Katherine and Elena couldn't impersonate each other quite so much." I shook my head. "Breaking compulsion is very hard and very painful, but it can be done with magic."

"It can?" Bonnie looked relieved, though she did not stop crying.

"Sheila." I grabbed her shoulders. " **You will do everything I say until the end of time if you believe I am being serious about it. You are free from any compulsion of Klaus's. You will explain what Klaus demanded you do. You will harm no one."**

Sheila writhed in her chair as compulsions warred in her brain.

"You're hurting her!" Bonnie shouted.

"Do you think for one second your Grams wants to stop hurting _less_ then she wants to protect you or hurt Klaus?" I asked. I kept eye contact with Sheila as I tried to fight what Klaus had done.

Bonnie was silent.

[hr][/hr]

 

"I told him everything," Sheila whispered, finally. It was late at night. Bonnie and I were with her in a room in the Salvatore House. It had taken a long time to straighten out Sheila's head.

"What did he want to know?" I asked.

"He wanted to know everything about you and your girlfriend." Sheila whispered. She took a sip of vervain and honey tea; the vervain helped me clear her mind even though it burned her throat on the way down. "He wanted to know about the Thirteen, about Siphoners, about your visions. He was so angry I didn't know more..." She shuddered and took another sip.

"Understandable." I nodded.

"He gave me the dagger for Elijah if he visited me again. I called him, Klaus made me call him, but he wouldn't come. Elijah said things were changing. Klaus was so mad." Sheila gulped down more tea.

"When you say Klaus, is he in his own body, or was it a human one?" I asked.

"It was one of Bonnie's friends. Matt." Sheila answered.

" _Shit_ ," I said.

Bonnie looked at me. "Is Matt Donovan one of your favorite people or something?"

"Not exactly," I answered. Vicki's brother being Klaus's meat puppet was going to be a serious problem.

"If his body wasn't here, how did he turn you?" I asked.

"It was a witch with Klaus's blood. She was beautiful, powerful, so strong." Sheila shuddered and Bonnie leaned close to her, shushing her.

"Was she black?" I asked.

Both Bennetts stared at me for a moment. "Yes," Sheila answered.

"Um, that's confirming it was Greta Martin, not racism," I muttered. Sheila coughed in what may have been a laugh and Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Luka's sister?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes. She's one of Klaus's witches, and another guy, a white guy, is probably here, too. I remember almost nothing about him besides him being white. Another strong witch." Greta coming here would put the alliance with Jonas and Luka in danger if I had to kill her.

"Klaus is furious. You have to run, Bonnie. Go somewhere, anywhere." Sheila whispered. "When his witch told him who was walking around he nearly killed her. He said they're his siblings, the Originals, they are awake. This town will become a bloodbath." Sheila shuddered harder as Bonnie held her hand.

"Not exactly true. You know the vampire you spoke to was Damon, the one you daggered, right?" I asked.

"What?" Sheila asked.

"Ah, Damon _didn't_ tell you who he was, then?" I sighed.

"He said he was working for Elijah, that was all." Sheila coughed and drank more tea.

"He did try to kill me. Maybe he thought it'd make a bad impression?" Bonnie suggested.

"That's probable. Klaus's siblings aren't awake, Sheila. Klaus's _mother_ is awake. Klaus's mother is the Original Witch, the one who made vampires, and the one who wants to end them. She put other people in the bodies of those children." I smiled at the older woman. "I'm one of them. We're here to _stop_ Klaus." I felt good at pontificating, hoping it would ease the woman's shakes.

Sheila bit into Bonnie's neck. Ah, the shaking was not from the main or the fear, it was from _hunger_. I should have been smarter than that.

I sighed. "Almost forgot you were a baby vampire." I broke a few blood vessels in Sheila's brain and she reared back in pain. I bit my wrist and put my blood into Bonnie's mouth as she writhed. "Let's see if there's any blood left in the basement."

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

I followed Damon's directions to an abandoned house that looked considerably too new to have been there when Emily burned, much less her ancestors. Lexi was babysitting the new Bennett vampire and her granddaughter while Luka and Jeff prepared their Hybrid creation spell.

My body was in a boat piloted by Travelers, but my mind projected to the right point on the Other Side to meet the ghosts of the witches who died at this site. The violent death of a witch marked a place with power, which could be channeled by witches on the Other Side to influence the world or by witches in the world to perform spells.

"Hello," I called out into the void, backing it with the force of my will to reach through the veil and let the spirits hear me. The Other Side twisted and turned, veiled and deceived, keeping supernatural ghosts from seeing each other, but magical power could break through these obstacles without much of an issue.

"You, again." I saw Emily Bennett's spirit first. "What do you want this time?"

"I am here to kill Klaus," I projected the statement farther and deeper. Shadowy shapes began to circle me as the spirits became interested.

"Niklaus Mikaelson?" A young looking spirit came into my view. "The Old One?"

"He's been called that, yes." I nodded. "I am working on a plan to kill the Originals."

"That would kill all of them." A much older looking spirit came into sight. "All the vampires they sired are linked to them, Esther made sure of that."

"Yes," I agreed. "It would put an end to Esther's mistakes and let her find peace."

"Peace?" The younger woman laughed. "I've been on the Other Side for over 200 years. Why should that bitch get peace?"

"Everyone deserves peace, Harriet," The older one chided. "If Esther can set right what she did wrong, she should go to the White Place."

"What keeps you here?" I asked Harriet.

"My murderer is still alive," She answered, sounding sullen.

"In a manner of speaking, they all are." Another witch came into my view for this odd little conference, tan and beautiful.

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked.

The other witches stared for a moment.

"They are subdued for now. The last time the sirens were active they killed all the adults in the coven." The latest witch explained. "Don't kick over that stone if you don't have to."

"Sirens?" I asked, curiously.

"Monsters. Servants of Arcadius." The old looking one answered.

"Arcadius?" I asked. "Cade?"

"Where did you hear that name?" The beautiful one asked, sounding worried.

"Um, short answer is my friend knows the future, though he doesn't control learning things well. He said a figure that inspired stories of the devil was named Cade, and he was a psychic of great power." I cut off a growing ramble, as it would not help.

"The Ruler of Hell," The beautiful spirit nodded.

"So that's one more strike for his story checking out," I nodded. "My name's Lauren."

"Beatrice Bennett," The beautiful woman explained. "Ayana and Harriet," She gestured at the older and younger women respectively. Ayana was from an older generation then the death of this coven, as that was Esther's mentor in magic. "You know Emily."

"She might be working for Cade," Emily said.

"Why on Earth do you think that?" I asked.

"Arcadius is a psychic, and so is your boyfriend. How sure are we they aren't connected somehow?" Emily frowned.

"Emily, shut your mouth with that talk. If she was workin' for Cade she wouldn't be asking for _our_ help." Ayana scolded the younger witch.

"I really, really am not working with the Devil to the very best of my knowledge. A Gemini Coven Prison is one thing, being burned forever is another." I defended myself.

"The Twins are still around?" Beatrice shook her head. "I'd hoped they'd gotten themselves killed off by now, the crazy bastards."

"Clearly being killed off is not an absolute obstacle," I pointed out.

To my surprise, Ayana laughed. "You're right, girl. So what is all this about killin' Klaus?"

[hr][/hr]

 

I awoke from the conference in a good mood. A coven of witches who died fighting the forces of evil were pretty happy to lend a hand to stop Klaus's reign of mayhem and terror. Jeff's idea was controversial, but they were discussing it with the rest of the dead coven and their participation in that spell was not strictly necessary.

The Travelers were setting up a base camp on the beach. I could _sense_ the power deep within the island, a massive spell that had lasted for two thousand years. That was the spell we could use to turn Tyler Lockwood into something Klaus would learn to fear.


	14. Chapter 14

**Lauren**

" _Magia tollox de terras. Utera aso utox."_ I chanted. Beneath my feet Silas's tomb entrapped him through the ancient spell of Qetsiyah, and that spell was mine for the taking. I knelt on the ground with one of my hands on the soil and the other held by one of the Travelers I was working with. " _Oribos turai manecsitus,"_ I chanted, and the power went from me into the Traveler, who began to shake. "I need a new one."

Another Traveler stepped forward while the first one crawled away. A small line of Travelers stood behind him, waiting to accept the bestowal of magic stored in the earth beneath my feet.

If I wanted to use this much power I needed a way to store it. The ability to simply add raw magical power was too useful to pass up even if I did not have a pressing use for it at the moment. Distributing the power among several people would let me keep more of it then I could survive alone. Qetsiyah had made the strongest spell I had ever tried to siphon, and I would pop like a balloon if I tried to take it all.

I wondered if Silas himself could be an asset. Silas was a person, and so he was not replicated in the Prison World, but once this spell was gone in the Prison World it would be gone in the real world. Silas was Qetsiyah's friend and lover, as well as her student, and would know the ancient magic used by the Travelers before they were cursed into weakness. If Qetsiyah acting alone and hunted had done the spell I was dismantling right now then I had to wonder what other spells might be in Silas's brain. According to Jeff, Silas was an evil and twisted person, but how much of that came from 2000 years of starvation, torture and grief? Could Silas be fixed, or at least _used_?

[hr][/hr]

I napped and communed with Jeff in the ordinary world; He looked excited.

"Tonight is the Decade Dance at Mystic Falls High School; Klaus sent us a message telling us he would be there."

"Why on Earth does Klaus want to go to a high school dance?" I asked.

"He wants to impress us with a display of being twisted and creative, or maybe he just wants neutral ground. There's a problem that I need to explain, though. Klaus decided to possess Matt, and Vicki isn't taking it well." Jeff looked apologetic.

"Damn." I frowned. "So you can't just kill him."

Jeff sighed. "Well, killing that body would just let his pet witches put him back in his old one. He doesn't know if we have a plan to kill him or not, or if Mikael's around, so he wants to scout things out in something disposable and if he dies in Matt's body he can be put right back in his real one. If I knew where Klaus's real body was I could end it right now, but Bonnie couldn't break through the cloaking spell on it."

"Anything I could do to help?" I asked.

"Well you could channel enough power to Bonnie to break the cloaking spell now that you're running hot on Silas's tomb," Jeff smiled. "The issue is if we want to use so much of that power on this move in particular. If we kill Klaus's real body we kill off his sireline, which should please Esther but might make us even more enemies while she's off on fighting Dahlia."

"Do you think you could bind his spirit in Matt and hold Klaus hostage that way?" I asked. "Or what about killing Klaus's spirit without killing Matt; is that possible?"

"I think the Travelers have a knife that can do exactly that. Problem there is that I have no idea how it'd interact with Esther's sire line thing and I'm unsure if it would even delay Klaus being put back into his vampire body. I read a spell in Jonas Martin's grimoires to seal a spirit into a body, but I think if we did that it'd piss Vicki off, killing her brother or coming really close to it." Jeff frowned. "I'm totally willing to kill Matt to capture Klaus and take his lunacy off the table for a while, but I'm not as willing to deal with the hybrid of Vicki and Rebekah pissed off at us for murdering her brother."

"Cold." I smiled. "Could we just dagger her or something?"

"No daggers we aren't using on Mikael, so not without Bonnie or Luka's help, and _explaining_ the steps and reasoning in that plan seems likely to trip me up. 'Hey Bonnie, want to help me subdue one of my most reliable allies so I can do something horrible to one of your friends so I _might_ get Klaus out of our hair if everything goes my way?' Too many failure points if we have an alternative." Jeff laughed.

"I see the problem." I nodded. "Anything else I need to know?"

"Esther called me from Morocco today." Jeff sighed deeply. "She found a witch murdering children there and put Finn's spirit into the man's body. Apparently, Finn proceeded to bolt instead of start helping her with the plan. I am worried a jumpchain drawback I took that makes Finn into my enemy has modified the situation and I am unsure what the hell to tell Esther about it."

"Fuck." I groaned. "What about Tyler?"

"Mason, Lexi and Elena inducted him into our conspiracy. Mason also talked with that werewolf pack that came to town and apparently they are deciding if they should help us by putting Tyler and Mason through some kind of ancient werewolf trials to determine a new alpha." Jeff shook his head.

"Sounds _sensible_." I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, I offered Mason the spell to make moonlight rings but he thinks they'd trust me as far as they could throw me right now. I can't really blame a werewolf pack for finding this whole thing fishy." Jeff looked mildly defensive.

"Chances that Mason and Tyler make it through the trials and we can make Tyler into a Hybrid?" I asked.

"This is probably dumb reasoning, but I think it's almost certain. I'm using television logic, but I can't imagine side characters go through something dumb like this and _fail_. At least fail and die, I mean. Possibly we get an angry werewolf pack out of this, but I am betting Tyler's going to be really committed to becoming a superhero after this is done." Jeff answered.

**Wyld**

Jenna was helping Elena and Bonnie get ready for the school dance and its theme of dressing in a stereotype of the 1960s. Being male it seemed all that was required of me was putting on a suit and saying I was a cousin of Jenna's who was visiting. While the girls prepared I sat with Sheila as the former witch wrote down a list of contacts. Sheila and I wanted to have everything prepared if she had to be put down, as she was a vampire now.

"There's Hazel Tulle; she's going to hide as long as she can, but she is strong and the only person the Gemini Coven sent to watch," Sheila explained.

"I am glad they sent _someone_ to investigate, but I was hoping for a bit more backup." I nodded as I looked at the list.

"The coven is going through some problems right now," Sheila explained. "They are vulnerable and can't make a move without risking everything."

"Something to do with the Merge and their inheritance method?" I asked. "I think there's someone called Kai who killed or tried to kill his siblings?"

Sheila frowned. "The Parker family leads the coven. Malachai Parker was one of the potential heirs but he butchered most of his brothers and sisters. No one was willing to let Kai lead their coven after that. The Merge is how the leadership is transferred and it is powered by the sacrifice of one of the Parkers, either Luke or Liv are the viable candidates. If there is no Merge before their current leader dies the entire coven will die."

"Why did a coven of presumably rational people decide to create a system that requires the murder of a family member to perpetuate itself?" I asked.

"According to them it was an accident. They bound their lives to their strongest member because most of them were very weak, and this let them call on the power of the others when they needed it. They became desperate to find someone strong enough to take the place of their leader, and the Merge was their solution. They never found a better one." Sheila sighed. "Josh is a weak leader, and he knows if he gets any of his people killed he will lose even more of his authority. He won't send anyone to the front lines if he can find a way to weasel out of it."

"Anyone more reliable?" I asked.

"There's Aja Folsom, a friend of Abby's, but we haven't spoken in years," Sheila said quietly.

"Abby? Your daughter Abby?" I asked.

"Yes." Sheila frowned. "Abby doesn't speak to me or even Bonnie."

"I can see how that would be _tense_." I shuddered. "Anyone else at all?"

"None I trust." Sheila looked pained. "Not alive, anyway. Possibly..." Sheila trailed off. "A witch I knew died recently. Her husband, he can't practice, but he knows more about the supernatural then anyone else."

"Does he have a name?" I asked. "Did by any chance their son die recently?"

"Atticus and Caitlin Shane." Sheila looked worried. "You saw them?"

"Yes. I believe Caitlin died through overuse of magic trying to bring their son back?" I pondered my memory of some season or other of The Vampire Diaries.

"No." Sheila's voice was firm. "She died trying to use _Expression_ to bring her son back. There's no such thing as overusing _that_ , it went exactly how the thing she was calling on wanted it do. She killed twelve people to have a chance at that."

"Expression." I held back a smile. "Sacrifice of twelve humans, twelve Hybrids, and twelve witches, right? Or maybe just twelve humans for Caitlin's deal."

Sheila's mouth was open in horror. "You saw someone kill what, twelve of Klaus's abominations and a whole coven of witches to try and get _more_ power from Expression?"

"Something like that. I remember the term 'Expression Triangle' was used. The idea was to bring down the Other Side and bring back _all_ the dead ghosts." I stopped talking as Sheila looked too disturbed to speak. "Are you alright?"

"Every vampire, every werewolf, every Traveler, every dark witch, and who knows what else coming _back_?" Sheila whispered. "Did you see it happen?"

"Nope. But you can see why I remembered something about that kind of power. It was Atticus Shane trying to bring his family back that started it." I explained.

"I need to take a break," Sheila whispered. "There's no one else I can think of who might help you."

[hr][/hr]

It was the first time I had met Jeremy Gilbert in person. We eyed each other as we waited in suits for the girls to arrive.

"Did you bring back Mikael?" I asked.

"Yep." Jeremy grinned. "Elena thought she should go through with the sacrifice. The plan was dumb. Anna told me about the hunter after I turned."

"Dumb, but probably not as dumb as thinking going along with Klaus would protect anyone." I nodded. "I can't blame you."

"Do you really see the future?" Jeremy asked.

"I did. It's not the future anymore, it's just the future I saw. You weren't a vampire, you just tried to become one pretty hard before Damon convinced you not to. Him not being here probably sped things up." I answered.

"How'd that asshole do that?" Jeremy asked.

"He killed you. Magic ring saved your life. I mean, it brought you back from being very dead. It convinced you that being a vampire makes you a murderous douche." I summarized.

"That it did." Jeremy admitted.

"Aimee Bradley, right?" I asked, remembering Vicki's rant from a while before.

"Also Tina Fell," Jeremy answered. "I helped with a couple vampires from the tomb, but they were trying to kill Anna, so that was different."

"I tried to eat my girlfriend's face," I offered in sympathy.

"Gross." Jeremy frowned. " _You_ have a girlfriend?"

"I think so," I answered.

"Oh, the blonde in leather pants?" Jeremy asked.

"Ah, you met 'Nina.' Actually no, we're just friends. My girlfriend is still in the prison dimension where my body is stuck." I explained.

"Nina broke into my locker and popped some of Elena's old pain pills. She reminds me of someone." Jeremy smiled a bit sadly.

"Ah." I said. I would have brought up the fact that Vicki in Rebekah's body probably reminded him of _Vicki_ , but so long as she wanted to keep a secret identity I would humor her.

"God." I looked up and saw the fake blonde bounce in. "Elena is taking forever to get ready."

"Speak of the devil and she appears," I said.

"Speak of a girl with super hearing and she leaves the bathroom," Vicki corrected. Rebekah's body was outfitted in a lazy hippy look that mostly stood out by having several peace signs on it.

"Good use of vampire powers." I nodded.

"Damon said there's a cure," Jeremy said after a moment.

"Why would you want one?" Vicki asked sharply.

"I've killed people, Nina. I want to stop," Jeremy explained.

"You have superpowers. Everything's better like this. Food, sex, blood, even the beer doesn't give you a hangover. You're already over the hump, why _stop_?" Vicki asked.

"There was this girl I knew, I thought she became a vampire and left. I wanted to go after her. Being a vampire meant I could do that." Jeremy answered. "When I turned I found out I was half right. Vicki turned alright, but she died right in front of me. Anna said she would stay with me forever, but then she died, too. What's the point in being alone forever?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm not going anywhere." A cheerful voice interrupted us as Jeremy's aunt, Jenna, blurred into the room with super speed. The new vampire was dressed brightly and ridiculously for the dance.

"That doesn't sound remotely incestuous," I told Jenna, who frowned at me. "Nice to meet you."

"Girls, put in your claws." Stefan entered the room with Elena on his arm. Bonnie trailed in last, looking uncomfortable but pretty.

"Alright." I stood up. "Looks like we're almost ready to go. Where's Luka?"

"He's not coming." Bonnie frowned.

"Man, you got no date?" Vicki rapped the table with feigned sympathy. "I bet even Klaus is taking Caroline if he's pretending to be Matty."

"Nina, be nice." I warned. "Bonnie's being _very_ helpful."

"Aww." Vicki scowled.

"Do I look like a chaperone?" Damon blurred into view at super speed on Elena's other side. Damon was wearing a dress shirt over Finn's body but had made no attempt to fit in with the 60s style that I could tell.

"More then Jenna does," I admitted.

"He means that as a compliment," Vicki told Jenna.

"Cool." Jenna nodded. I was pretty sure Jenna's actress was barely younger than Elena's, though she looked slightly taller.

"Jeremy, I've seen you date Bonnie in the future. Escort her." Jeremy's mouth fell open. I held the door for a frowning Vicki to start the process of leaving, feeling that I had suitably punished Vicki for being a bitch by setting up her ex.

[hr][/hr]

I trailed behind Vicki as we entered the school gym.

"How is it you can be more out of place at this then I am?" Vicki whispered. "I hate these things."

"Both the lives I remember I was home schooled. I've never been to one of these before." I whispered back. "Do you see Matt?"

"Yes," Vicki answered. She pointed to a young man talking to a member of the live band that was here.

"Oh yes. He's got a special dedication for Elena." I smiled at the memory.

"Nasty." Vicki laughed. "Is that supposed to scare us?"

"It's supposed to scare a teenager he is trying to manipulate." I paused. "No offense, teenage vampire."

"None taken." Vicki smiled with Rebekah's mouth and her vampire fangs.

I said "Ah," when Matt finished with the band and walked back to a pink suited girl. "Caroline went as Jackie O."

"So is Matt supposed to be JFK?" Vicki asked.

"I think so," I nodded. "Harder to tell."

"Damn." Vicki shook her head. "Elena had his balls in a vice until she traded up, and now he put them right into Caroline's oiled, polished and pink one. Does he just like being bossed around?"

"Probably." I shrugged.

I watched Elena dance with Stefan in the mid distance while Jeremy and Bonnie watched them. Jenna and Damon had situated themselves by the punch bowl. If Greta Martin was here I could not see her.

"So, do we dedicate something to Klaus?" Vicki asked after a moment.

"I really want to, but I don't think so. 'These Boots are Made for Walkin'' is my first choice, but he'd probably just kill someone to prove a point even if it got to him," I answered. "Besides, we're in the bodies of his siblings, which has to count for something."

"Let's just get this over with," Vicki decided and I followed her as she went right up to Matt and Caroline.

"And they arrive." Klaus's voice showed amusement. "I wondered if you would be brave enough to show yourselves after you stole my siblings from me."

"Stole?" I faked confusion. "You left these nice empty bodies open without anyone using them. You can't blame enterprising folks for putting them to use." I saw Caroline have a vacant, compelled look as she failed to register the conversation.

"Oh, blame you I can." Klaus said seriously. "Leave them at once. Do I have to ask less nicely?"

"Well, Nik," I answered, "That depends on a lot of things. I made a deal to stop you from breaking your curse, and we both want Elena alive."

"What makes you think that?" Klaus asked, his eyes suspicious.

"I know the future, Nik. Your mom screwed you. To complete the transition from a werewolf into a Hybrid a person has to drink the blood of a doppelganger. Without a living doppelganger the entire point of breaking the curse is useless. Until we are sure we have a way of allowing Elena to survive the sacrifice no one benefits if you break the curse." I leaned in.

Vicki's eyes followed us like we were a ping pong match.

"Why would I believe that?" Klaus asked, looking quite surprised.

"Well, I have seen Hybrids dying in agony as they failed to complete the transition when merely given human blood. They grow in power, they become feral, and they die. My visions have told me a _lot_ of useful things, and this is one of the things I am most certain about." I watched Klaus's face, or Matt's face, carefully. He looked thoughtful.

"Am I supposed to believe you are only here to stop me from sacrificing Elena out of the goodness of your heart?" Klaus asked sardonically.

"Oh, I have a lot of reasons for that. I want to save innocent lives from your failed experiments, I have use for doppelganger blood, and I have made a deal to stop or delay you from breaking the curse with someone who has promised to benefit me. I would rather you do not suffer anymore than necessary, though." I answered. I paused, surprised that I had been honest.

"And yet you steal the body of my brother." Klaus frowned. "You made yourself my enemy."

"It was unavoidable. My true body is trapped, and this was by far my best option. Believe me I'd rather have my real body then Kol's. I am a witch, and irritated at being a vampire. Being an Original has its perks, though." I smiled.

"You could have asked me for help," Klaus grinned.

"Would you have given it?" I asked. "You are rarely magnanimous when there is nothing in it for you."

"Oh, you'd be surprised." Klaus looked very satisfied; that worried me. "When did you make your deal with Elijah?"

"I didn't. I made a deal with your mother," I answered. Klaus looked stricken. "She's alive at the moment and tying up a loose end. Elijah is simply helping Esther pay her debt to me."

"Of course you're working with her," Klaus said, sounding disgusted. "I assumed you had merely stolen her body as well. What lies did she tell you to get your cooperation?"

"There is a piece of mystical equipment I need to get my real body into this world." I explained.

Suddenly, Klaus smiled. "Ah, a piece of equipment. I presume a crystal talisman?"

"Yes..." I answered.

"These are truly clever inventions." Klaus pulled a phone from his pocket and began flipping through it. "Ah, there it is." He showed me a picture of a white man mugging the camera with a crystal in one hand. Next to the man was a desiccated Elijah.

"That is a problem." I admitted.

"Elijah completed his task for the Original Witch, prying this particular crystal out of the hands of your enemies. Now the crystal belongs to me." Klaus looked delighted.

"You're mother-" Vicki cut me off.

"Stop!" Vicki shouted at us. Both Klaus and I jumped, having forgotten her. "You two both have exactly the same length of dick. If you two keep rambling in front of Kathy, Stefan, and the rest of the local vampires you're _going_ to let something slip that will fuck us all over."

"Ah, profanity. One vice Rebekah never exhibited." Klaus smiled. "I take it you are this one's minion?"

"Let's just go somewhere private, Klaus." Vicki sighed. "If we're going to make a deal to betray them, we can't do it in their earshot."

I paused and listened to Vicki's mind. She totally thought I was going to screw Klaus over, but she was sure that the key to doing that _effectively_ was making him think I was on board. She had a point.

"Abandoned house full of witches a suitable meeting place for you?" I asked.

"Of course not." Klaus frowned. "I can text Caroline the place of _my_ choosing."

"You've got witches. No fucking way." I answered.

"We need actually neutral ground." Vicki said thoughtfully. "Caroline's house?" She gestured at the still oblivious girl.

"Fine by me," I answered. Klaus nodded after a moment's consideration.

As we walked out Stefan blurred in front of the door.

"Stefan, don't be an idiot." I said. "You know an Original can have your heart on the floor in a second."

"Oh?" I heard Finn's voice in Damon's tone come. "I'm eager to try that myself." I turned and saw Damon's was holding Klaus's, and hence _Matt's_ , neck firmly.

"Don't. Do. That." Vicki growled.

"Is this how it ends?" Damon asked, his voice growing high and angry. "All this, and you throw it away on a deal with the wolf man?"

"Don't test me, Damon." I glared. "You want to come back, you need me. You piss me off, I heart rip Stefan without blinking."

"You don't have the balls," Damon laughed.

"I do." I turned and saw Vicki in vamp face with her fangs at Stefan's throat.

"It would be fair," I pointed out.

"We seem to be at an impasse," Klaus smiled.

"Now who is measuring dicks?" I asked Vicki. "Damon, if that crystal breaks, I can't bring you back to life on Earth and even if I could figure out a way I wouldn't _want_ to. I need to find a compromise where everyone wins."

"A compromise where Elena dies?" Stefan asked.

"She needn't die permanently," Klaus remarked. "Not if this creature has been telling me the truth." He looked at me.

"See! Compromise. We just need to bargain away the werewolf and the vampire and then figure out a way for Esther to be chill with it and everyone wins!" I considered for a moment that the statement was ridiculous, but it did not feel like any clarifications would help matters.

"Damon!" I heard Elena's voice. "Let them go."

"Seriously?" Damon asked, looking pissed.

"We _know_ that Jeff won't do anything to endanger his reputation when he needs help so badly," Elena looked at me seriously. "If Klaus wants his Hybrids and his family he won't kill me or do anything to betray Jeff." Elena looked at Matt's face and Klaus nodded. "Damon, let them go."

He did.

[hr][/hr]

**Lauren**

I felt a kind of migraine and fell over in the middle of Siphoning. After a moment's agony I had forced the spell away but had heard a psychic scream of "contact me _right now_ " from what I was pretty sure was Bonnie.

"Duty calls," I told the Travelers, and I sat down, preparing a chant that sent me straight into a light slumber.

In the dreamscape I saw Bonnie Bennett looking furious. "What the hell is wrong with your boyfriend?"

"That is an amazingly vague question. What exactly did he do?"

It took a while for me to figure out what Bonnie was shouting about, but eventually I figured out that he was working with Klaus because Klaus had captured the Ascendant.

"Bonnie." I looked at her. "Do you want your Grams to stop being a vampire?"

"Of course!" Bonnie shot back.

"I am minutes away from getting the Cure," I explained. "Give me a few days and I can probably replicate it or do something close enough to really help her. We need physical travel into your realm for that to work."

"Elena's going to die! So is Mason, and probably Jenna or Jeremy." Bonnie shook her head. "I can't just let that happen. Klaus killed Katherine's family, he murders everyone, he turned my Grams into a vampire! You can't just give him more power."

"You can't just ignore him, either. If we just ignored him on this he might find something even worse to hold over us. If he thinks he's winning then he won't have to push as hard. I'm sure Jeff doesn't really plan on giving Klaus everything he wants." I paused. "Almost sure," I admitted.

[hr][/hr]

 

I held the box with the Cure in my hand. Inside the ancient wooden box there was an ancient spell of enormous power.

Qetsiyah's spell felt oddly familiar to me, almost like my own Siphoning. Perhaps the great witch had something to do with the origins of the Siphoners? Whatever was in the box could undo a lot more then a single spell, if it was used properly. Something eternal and strong writhed there.

"We've got it," I told the Travelers, if only to have someone to say it to.

The journey back to the mainland was uneventful. I examined Emily's grimoire, Esther's grimoire, and the Cure together for reference. Without Qetsiyah's own grimoire there were many missing pieces, but I felt I could understand everything together in ways I had not before. In my own grimoire I traced a model of what I thought Qetsiyah and Esther's immortality spells had actually done.

There was some kind of protection spell and linking spell using doppelganger blood, or something like it, in both versions of the immortality spell. Human blood was being used to feed something that was not quite the vampire itself, if I understood how the Cure would enter into an immortal and work. I suspected the "thing" the blood was feeding was something like the wolf inside the werewolves. The "thing" was a binding agent for every spell and curse of vampirism and perhaps of immortality. Esther would not have known she was making something alive, or at least "alive" from her grimoire, but the Cure's design only made sense in that scenario.

Esther had despaired of casting a spell on something that was not alive and was not dead. I examined the Cure and the notes there carefully. She may not have cast the spell on _Silas_ and _Amara_ at all, but on the thing that fit inside them.

The binding agent, which I labeled a demon for lack of a more intuitive term, was probably something created by the immortality spell, but perhaps Qetsiyah had found something already in the deepest part of the human soul. For all I knew the "soul" was what she was transforming. I felt a strong desire to start siphoning and experimenting on a werewolf.

I looked at notes Emily had written on the White Oak Ash Daggers. Emily had never seen one, but she knew about them and her ancestors had created them. The strange poison the daggers created to incapacitate an Original felt "right" if it was blocking the demon's access to its vampire host. I began to sketch out theories based on Emily's rings that stopped a vampire from being weak to wood, Esther's daylight and moonlight ring spells, notes on vervain, and the Cure. I felt that I was on the verge of a true breakthrough. If Jeff could hold on just a little longer Klaus might not be a problem at all.

[hr][/hr]

 

**Wyld**

Klaus and I sat in Caroline's living room. To my distress, Sheriff Forbes lay dead with a broken neck in the hallway. Caroline didn't seem to notice as Klaus had her wait in the kitchen.

"So here is what is going to happen; you are going to deliver me the moonstone that binds my curse and the doppelganger who I sacrifice to break the curse to me. I shall investigate the tales about dying Hybrids and see if my own witches can save the girl sufficiently for a compromise. Once I have broken the curse you get the crystal my brother found so conveniently before my witch daggered him. If you interfere then I have the crystal smashed and scatter the pieces into the ocean. Are we clear?" Klaus looked incredibly smug.

"You sexy beast," I laughed. "You _do_ have my balls in a vice, don't you?"

"Did I stutter?" Klaus asked. "You are in the body of an Original; surely executing Elena's pathetic bodyguards would be a matter of seconds? Don't tell me you don't know where the moonstone _is_?"

"Katherine has it," I said. I paused for a moment. "Katerina Petrova."

"I know the doppelganger's pseudonym!" Klaus shouted.

"Damon Salvatore is currently in the body of Finn, making your immediate suggestion imprudent. Damon's reaction to the execution of his brother is unlikely to be pleasant to say the least. If I agree to this deal I will need time." I explained.

" _If_?" Klaus looked incredulous. "What is your alternative?"

"I am playing a dangerous game, Niklaus." I saw Klaus tense at the name. "I am dealing with the Original Witch, who has come within an inch of killing you all in the future visions I saw. Esther's plan is currently _extremely dumb_ and she might not survive another month. You are mercurial, impatient, and violent beyond my comprehension." I gestured at Caroline's dead mother. "I need you to understand why you are not going to add stipulations or screw me over in a fit of spite." I watched Klaus scowl.

"You are in no position to negotiate, are you? One phone call and something you clearly value is destroyed forever; do you want me to be your enemy?" Klaus asked.

"I have your father," I stated.

Klaus froze. He looked around the room with an expression close to panic. "If you're lying about this I will eat your heart." Klaus whispered.

"Ever heard of Katherine's friend, Pearl? She knew how to locate Mikael. Her daughter turned a new vampire into their family, and he's the last of their line and just so happens to be Elena's brother. He realized Elena's plan was dumb, so he went and dug Mikael up from the coffin he was in." I explained. "Right now he has a dagger in him, the dagger you had Sheila put in Finn's body."

"I see." Klaus nodded. "He will destroy you if he wakes."

"He can't get to me if that crystal is destroyed. As far as I know that is the _only_ way to physically travel across the worlds. What would I care if he burns this town to the ground to stop you? Is there any daylight between you two from my perspective? I have his _stake._ If you shatter the Ascendant I will pull the dagger out as soon as I've made sure the stake is indestructible, and then use the stake on Kol and Rebekah before Mikael wakes to take it." I ranted, feeling a sense of excitement and power at a duel of words with Klaus himself.

"You dare to threaten me and my family!" Klaus roared. Several dancers were looking at us worriedly.

"Family?" I pointed again at the dead sheriff. "I will put it simply Klaus; I know everything you're capable of. I'm capable of just as much, maybe worse. You _do not jump the gun_. I will work my very best to get you everything you want. If you make one of your trademark _stupid_ calls then Mikael is the only member of your family left when I'm done."

Klaus sat there, furious but clearly thinking hard. "You're bluffing," He said after a minute. "You don't really have Mikael or the stake."

" **I am telling you the truth,** " I said with a burst of Immortal compulsion.

Klaus shuddered. "What _was_ that?" He asked.

"I was trying a short cut through that Mikaelson stubborn streak. Did it work?" I asked.

"I believe you are telling the truth, now. I know you are clearly spewing a pile of horse shit, too," Klaus said thoughtfully.

"Oh, just read my mind or something." I stood up and leaned over Klaus. "Surely an Original can do that?"

Klaus focused for a moment. "I can tell you're _very_ annoyed and impatient. Yes..." Klaus paused. "You have seen my father, at least, and the stake. You have seen my mother..." Klaus sounded pained for a moment. "You want to kill me, you fantasize about it..." Klaus smiled. "Oh, _that's_ a trick; when did the Original Witch put a spell on us to kill off all our vampire descendants?"

"Damn it," I sighed. "I was hoping to keep that under wraps."

"Keep under wraps that Katerina dies if I do?" Klaus smiled. "If Katerina goes then so does Stefan. I wonder who Anna's sireline comes from, and what happens to little Jeremy when I go? You knew all this time that you were murdering them and their friends and let them help you do it. You're certainly a piece of work, aren't you?"

"Surely we have an understanding?" I asked. "I mean, if I don't work with _you_ then my plan collapses into a million pieces the moment you tell them anything." I paused. "Assuming they aren't listening in on this conversation right now."

"Oh, great Master of the Mind, surely you can make them forget if they did?" Klaus asked with a smile. Then Klaus frowned. "What is that?" He asked. "A _perk_? I don't understand."

"My visions are accurate, but come from down a rabbit hole of cosmological and practical insanity that has kept me up all night with flowcharts and colored string. Long story short..."

" _Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish, I wish he’d go away.._." Klaus recited. "Oh, that _is_ curious, isn't it? We are all a story someone else made up as far as you can tell?" Klaus grinned. "You're not the first, you know."

" _What_?" I asked.

"We are all on the same sinking vessel, my new friend. Let us tell this story _after_ I get what I want." Klaus looked so incredibly smug.

" **Tell me."** I demanded.

"I was lying to put you on edge," Klaus answered, and then frowned. "How _do_ you do that?"

"Originals can be compelled by what I am, and my psychic energy carried with me when I entered the body of Kol." I explained.

"Ah." Klaus nodded.

"If I trusted my ability to compel you better we would not be having this conversation, so it is _unlikely_ to be turned against you." I explained.

"Do you think you can get me the moonstone?" Klaus asked after a minute of thought.

"If Katherine has it destroyed out of spite I would fail. A similar problem is present for Elena herself, as she can die or turn into a vampire at anytime." I answered honestly.

"You have two days until the full moon." Klaus paused. "You don't want a vampire and a werewolf to die in the sacrifice; are you truly so sentimental?"

"No, I'm not. But I believe that if I act like I am I will be a better person then if I admit it," I explained.

Klaus laughed out loud. "So that's it? You think if you pretend to be good you will find some flicker of morality in your soul?"

"I'm not damned yet." I smiled at Klaus. "I will do my very best, but I do have one sincere request in exchange for my cooperation."

"What would that be?" Klaus was curious.

"Matt and Caroline don't die. Elena doesn't want her friends hurt, and those two people count. If I betray her, I owe her that much at least."

"Very well." Klaus answered. "I will harm neither one."

I left the house. I had a lot to do before the full moon.

[hr][/hr]

I found Atticus Shane in a book store near the Whitmore College campus. Professor Shane was on a leave of absence, but he was not traveling at the moment.

"You're Kol." Atticus looked up, his eyes piercing. "Kol Mikaelson."

"Not exactly." I smiled. "I'm a witch possessing Kol for my own purposes."

"What do you want?" Atticus was not crying or drinking or even showing signs of fatigue, he was simply studying maps of Canada stretched out on the table before him. I sat down next to him.

"You're intelligent and capable of doing great things. I am stuck in something like a Gemini Coven Prison dimension. If my current plan goes south I want someone motivated to pick up the pieces." I got straight to the point.

Atticus's eyes glimmered. "Malachai?"

"Wrong once again. Did Sheila Bennett tell you about him?" I asked.

"I know Jo," Atticus explained. "She's a friend of my wife's."

"About your wife, here's the deal. I will bring her back if I find any way to do so. Right now, I am stuck in a purgatory dimension and can't bring her and your son back for you. If I get to Earth, then I can start working on it. Sound like a plan?" I continued to be concise.

"It does, but why should I trust you?" Atticus asked. "Not many witches can bring back the dead, and vampires can't be witches."

"You'd be surprised." I pulled a quarter out of my pocket and levitated it with telekinesis. "I'm not _myself_ here, but I can do a few neat tricks in Kol's body. I'm curious how you know what he looks like, too."

"There are paintings of the Mikaelsons if you know where to look and many witches would like to see Kol back. My wife is one, actually." Atticus put his book away.

"You're after a long shot on raising Silas. I assure you I am a lot more reliable, Professor. Want anything else to prove my merit?" I asked.

"This kind of thing just doesn't happen." Atticus frowned, but he looked very curious. "Why are you here, really?"

I prepared to pontificate. "Honestly, well, how honest do you really want me to be? The way I know your future is crazy and occasionally unreliable, but when I have the right details it is _amazingly_ precise. The fact is that the people I am working with right now are a bunch of scheming bastards who have even odds of selling me out if I'm being generous. You, on the other hand, are amazingly goal oriented. In a few months I have a shot at getting out of my purgatory dimension, and then eight more shots after that, or I have a good chance of never getting out at all. If you get me out, you have my word I will do my best to bring your wife and son back to life. What more do you need?"

"I want to know everything." Atticus's look was very hungry. "Please, tell me."

"Hm..." I considered. "Do you take vervain?"

"Not in a while." Atticus shook his head.

"Drink it, keep it in a bracelet or something, and hide it somewhere else on your body all at once. Vampires can be tricky about taking it away from you. I guess it won't hurt anything if I tell you everything that's happened." I paused. "I'll admit, that is because you are _expendable_ from my perspective. Not saying I would sell you out or anything, but you're unrelated to my main plans and if you are down it's only running without an insurance policy. No offense or anything."

"None taken." Atticus smiled. "So what exactly can you tell me that you aren't telling anyone else?"

"Well, I've told _some_ people. So first of all, tell me about your favorite book, or movie, or TV show, something like that. Believe me, this ties in." I watched the man closely.

" _Lord of the Rings_." Atticus smiled. "I know, I married a witch, so of course I'd like that."

"Alright, I never actually read it, though I read _The Hobbit_ and have gotten a lot of pop culture osmosis about it. So, imagine you wake up in a Hobbit Hole and Frodo is looking like you broke in. How do you explain yourself?" I sat back in my chair.

"Huh." Atticus frowned. "Are you saying that you found yourself in your favorite novel?"

"Not quite, but pretty close. I was playing a kind of online writing challenge about what you would do in that situation, and then something super weird happened before I found myself in almost exactly the situation I had been writing about. Sometimes I have been wrong about details, but they're the kind of thing you'd expect to get wrong occasionally like exact locations or names. It's possible I am slightly 'off course' in dimensions, but if so it's by a tiny amount." I explained.

"So you don't want to tell the main people they're _in_ a TV show because you don't know how they might react. I take it I'm _not_ on the show?" Atticus asked.

I smiled. "Minor character, recurring, in a later season, while I am in like, late season two or something so far."

"Ah, so you know some master plan I develop to bring back Caitlin and Sam. I take it that you don't think it ends well?" Atticus asked.

"Nope."

[hr][/hr]

 

I entered the Salvatore boarding house. Katherine and Elena sat together on a couch looking equally annoyed. Damon stood in one corner and Vicki in another, glaring at each other. Stefan paced. Bonnie and Luka sat at the table and poured over grimoires.

"He returns." Stefan said. "Are we fucked?"

"I am," I answered. "Dealing with Klaus made me put things on the table I never should have. He had to peel back layers if I wanted him confident. I have some leverage, but not much."

"How much?" Katherine asked.

"Is Tyler alive?" I asked.

"He won his trials. He and Mason are asleep," Stefan answered.

"Then we have what we need." I nodded. "I have one last move to make. I need Elena and every Original Vampire."

"Klaus has Elijah," Vicki pointed out.

"Katherine, that's your job." I told her. "Get me Elijah. I don't care how."

"Oh?" Katherine's eyes danced. "Is that all?"

"Do you want to stop Klaus?" I asked. "Get it done."

"What the hell are you planning?" Stefan asked.

"I'm going to break the curse on Klaus, and I'm going to give Esther everything else she wants," I explained.

"Can you be more vague and ominous?" Vicki asked.

"Everyone who knows what I am going to do is a liability. Klaus can extract the information. I just need you all to trust me one last time." I almost begged.

"Do it." Elena said after a moment.

"Are you sure?" Stefan asked.

"This way, we can all get out of this. Jeff is giving us a _chance_." Elena said. "If we don't let him try, then we _will_ lose people to him and Klaus."

"You would," Vicki whispered in her corner. Everyone turned and stared at her. "If you don't let him bring me back, I'll kill you all."

I looked at Vicki for a minute. "Thank you," I said honestly. Vicki and I walked out of the room together.


	15. Chapter 15

**Lauren**

I projected myself into the abandoned house on the witch burning ground. Once a witch had wanted a house on the site most suited for communing with these spirits; that witch was dead and no one had claimed her house.

I felt a press of spirits, dozens of them, maybe a hundred. Witches who had been exploring the world and the Other Side had returned to the place they died. Other witches, spirits who had befriended this coven, were here to observe as well. The spirits were invisible and intangible to me outside of sheer mystical _presence_ , as the Other Side was built to keep victims alone.

I felt a press of power and I saw Ayana, mentor of Esther and ancestor of the Bennett Coven, manifest in front of me. The will of a witch was enough to defeat the Other Side's power for a time so we could speak.

"Sisters," Ayana spoke. "We are here today because a great wrong is coming. A man I knew in life is preparing to become the most powerful creature in existence. Niklaus is cruel and violent, an abomination against Nature and life. If Niklaus is unchecked he will slaughter among the living and condemn many souls to the curse of the vampire and the werewolf. I present a living witch to plea her case with us."

I projected myself like a light into the dark corners of the Other Side, allowing anyone who pressed on the veil to see me. "What I ask of you is no little thing. I believe our best chance at preventing Niklaus from doing great harm is to create a new vampire as his equal. My candidate is a potential werewolf named Tyler Lockwood. I believe we can empower Tyler with Esther's flawed immortality and make him into a peer of the Originals. If he takes a single human life he will become what Klaus seeks to be, a Hybrid of vampire and werewolf. I know the risks of creating a new monster are great, but the long history of Klaus's depredations is known to us all. With a match who wields a stake of White Oak, Klaus would fear for his life and be forced to reason with people who value the lives of the weak."

I felt but did not hear a press of murmuring witches discussing my proposal. Witches forced through to talk to each other, not the crowd, so they could privately comment or seek advice. After a while I saw Emily Bennett project her energies out so we could all see her.

"I worked with many vampires when I was alive. Vampires differ in their capacity for evil and for cruelty. If Tyler is a good man he has a terrible potential in his heart. When a vampire feels too keenly the pain they cause they must turn off their emotions. If Tyler turns his emotions off he will care for little besides human blood. If this happens Klaus will be free of fear and we shall have done nothing but create another terrible monster." Emily faded away.

Ayana projected once more into the view of the crowd. "Tyler Lockwood will become a werewolf. Werewolves have a curse that increases their rage and their violence. However, werewolves are bonded by spells and tradition into a form of familial loyalty far tighter then our own. I believe any werewolf who tried to turn off his emotions would fail when faced with trying to suppress that bond, especially if the emotions were already strong. I have checked on the candidate, and Tyler has two living parents, a werewolf uncle, and a pack ready to take him as their own."

Ayana faded as I felt the press of magic in the enclosed space, witches finding each other and making quick discussions. Three witches pressed themselves into my layer of the veil.

"Would it be a good thing if this Tyler cannot turn his emotions?" One asked. "He might just serve the interests of his pack and damn everyone else he was supposed to protect."

"What if Tyler and Klaus become friends?" Another asked me. "They're both werewolves and soon could be the only two of their kind. Might Klaus convince another Hybrid that they must work together?"

The third was silent, simply watching me.

"Klaus has no ability to keep up a relationship unless he has absolute power in it. He keeps the only weapons that can hurt his siblings and uses them carelessly. Klaus cannot sustain a manipulation of an equal without becoming something more human then he is now. As for Tyler simply serving his pack, these wolves are not like the old werewolf tribes, but a found family of people who were largely unaware of their curse until it was triggered. The line between the wolves and the humans is a thin one, so I doubt it would turn against human interests. We hardly need to invest _all_ of our hopes in Tyler, though. If Tyler checks Klaus but has flaws of his own we can continue to meddle, granting out power to new witches or helping to create new vampires." I nodded respectfully at the three spirits.

"So you think the answer is to meddle and create monsters whenever we aren't happy with what is going on?" The third witch asked. "Surely that route leads to war and madness."

"It's the only path. We serve Nature, and the balance of Nature is not a dead thing, it is one of forces striving their hardest and reaching an equilibrium. Life requires effort to keep order. If we act with care we should leave the world better then if we did not act at all," I argued.

The three spirits nodded at me and faded from my sight as they stopped pushing to reach me.

Suddenly I felt a blast of wind as something immense made itself known to us all. It was as if every leaf on a great tree shook, and each leaf was a spirit of a witch. At the center of the magical storm a tall, dark and beautiful woman became visible.

"Greetings, Bennett Coven. I am your ancestor. I am your enemy. I am Qetsiyah of the Ancient Travelers." The new spirit announced. I shuddered. "Greetings, Lauren, heir of apostates from the Gemini Coven and the Everlasting Tribe."

"Hello, Qetisiyah," I said, keeping my voice strong despite the ferocious creature who had sought me out. I projected myself so everyone could see me again. Qeysiyah and I flared like twin suns in the darkness of the Other Side.

Qetsiyah raised her hand and I felt her _push_ in the opposite way I did when I projected myself to the spirits, and in a way we were suddenly alone. No spirits could see or hear us. "Do you really think this insanity will work?" Qetsiyah seemed to be sizing me up. "Has any good ever come from making new vampires?"

"I think it is a better idea then doing nothing," I answered.

"Are you sure?" Qetsiyah smiled. "Aren't you just trying to dig yourself out of the hole you stuck yourself in?"

"I want to escape the hell I created, but this is barely related to that. I believe creating a check on Klaus is a good idea on its own merits," I answered.

"If you want to limit the monsters, why are you bringing back Silas?" Qetsiyah asked.

"I am not bringing Silas back. I'm just opening the door to end the ridiculous treasure hunt and kill him more easily. I can also use the power you put in that spell to help myself get out of the hole I dug," I answered.

"You are powerful." Qetsiyah stated. "You expect everyone to listen to you because you're the strongest. I can relate."

"No one else seems to have a _plan_. If someone had a better plan I'd be working on it, but it seems a hundred spirits can't put anything together that could head Klaus off before now." I met Qetsiyah's gaze.

"Everyone has already decided they are going to help your boyfriend empower Tyler," Qetsiyah said. "No one came here without an opinion, and all of them are so eager to feel useful they can't help but go along with you in the end."

"Why are you keeping them away?" I asked. "And how do you know that?"

"We can't have those idiots listening in on anything important. A dramatic exit presses your case. Let them talk themselves into doing what they want to do anyway." Qetsiyah answered. "I know what is going on because these _witches_ refuse to mind their own business. A month can't go by without someone asking for aid or seeking me out for mystic knowledge. You'd think they'd have taken the hint that I'm not interested, but it seems they can't."

"Why do you seek out someone like me, then?" I asked. "I am working with Bennetts living and dead."

"I have heard there was a witch breaking Heaven and Earth to get out of a trap she made for herself," Qetsiyah said to me. "This was the easiest way for me to find you." Qetsiyah shook her head. "You are closer to killing Silas then anyone has been for a thousand years. I have been waiting for Silas to die for a _long_ time. I'm not going to let your little vendetta against the Old Ones distract you from killing Silas for me."

"I'm not there yet," I said. "I can't kill him until I can get to him."

"If someone who Silas can dupe into helping him gets to him first then you're probably doomed. Silas will destroy the Other Side one way or another before he's ready to die. There are already people preparing to dig him up. Without the Other Side you can't reach Earth so easily, can you?" Qetsiyah asked.

"He needs to get out of his cave, do three massacres and probably do several other steps before he's done, right?" I asked. "Jeff told me that. I have time."

"No, I don't think you do. Tell your boyfriend that killing Silas comes first, or I'll make sure you never get out of that prison," Qetsiyah frowned at me. "It's not like it's hard. You know where he has to go. The cure is in Silas's hands and the spell keeping him protected is destroyed. Make Jeff go and force the Cure down Silas's throat."

"Oh come on, chill!" I felt a rising exasperation with the ancient witch. "You can teach me lore to bribe me in return for killing Silas. It's not like your only leverage is threats."

Qetsiyah sighed. "The lunatics who pass for 'Travelers' these days know the cloaking spell is down and Silas can be brought back. The _idiots_ think he will help them. If they get the Cure they'll let Silas die as soon as they get one of his doppelgangers. That means the Other Side goes down. Every supernatural creature that died in the past two thousand years and failed to find peace will be able to take the chance to come back as the dimension collapses."

"Amara has to die too, right? The Traveler spell requires the blood of the _last_ doppelgangers." I could not help but smile. "Silas and Amara go to heaven together if that happens."

"Killing Silas comes _first_. When the full moon next reaches its apex I am going to have to help people who will go and kill him, and then kill your friends, and then kill every immortal being that walks this Earth." Qetsiyah's eyes looked _very_ crazy. I worried for a moment what the hell _Qetsiyah_ could need to channel the power of the full moon for. "If I leave Silas alone for a month he'll be free, so I have to do it if Jeff isn't on the island. Lauren, this isn't a threat, it's a _courtesy_. Kill Silas first!"

I snapped myself back into my own body. "This is going to be a problem," I said to myself.

[hr][/hr]

I called the Traveler camp in Mystic Falls. To my surprise Markos's voice was on the other end.

"How the hell did _you_ get back here?" I asked.

"You left the immortal's body lying in a hospital. My people found it and are using it to bring more of us into this world again. It's not like he was using it," Markos laughed softly.

"I just got back from meeting a ton of dead witches. Have you heard anything about your people digging Silas out of the ground?" I asked.

"Not exactly. Several of my people who are helping you talked to other deceased spirits. I knew that some Travelers had plans for Silas, but I did not know they had begun to move yet." Markos answered.

"Don't tell me you're _that dumb_ , Markos!" I shouted into the phone.

"Personally I am not, Lauren." Markos's voice was smooth, which grated on me. "We should get ourselves into this dimension before the Other Side goes down at the very least. Silas truly is planning on bringing down Qetsiyah's purgatory, isn't he? Unfortunately, my control over my people is not absolute. Some have built a religion around Silas, and others simply do not trust you to keep your word and help us.

" _Seriously_?" I asked. "Kill them!"

"I'm dead, Lauren. They are alive. I only have power when people listen to me. Few of my people are willing to kill their brothers and sisters over this disagreement."

" _Disagreement!_ This could be hell on Earth! Every witch who hates the Travelers comes back, and they're stronger then your people. They can gather together to kill you. Every dead Traveler needs to keep moving and keep in small groups when they come back until you break your curse." I sighed.

"That is true. Of course, breaking the curse on my kind is possible if Silas is dead and not if he is alive. I never understood the logic myself, but very smart people are sure that the true power of doppelganger blood cannot be exercised so long as the progenitors live. All we would have to do is capture one of each line and kill the other." Markos sounded wistful.

"Oh my god you're thinking about your giant doom spell to purify the universe of spirit magic and dark magic. Jeff told me about that lunacy and I still don't think I understand it." I shook my head, though Markos could not see it over the phone.

"The process is simple enough. Doppelgangers are the wrath of Nature incarnate. Once certain conditions are met, it is possible to use them to channel the power of Nature itself to simply undo everything that stands against the balance. Magic wrought by the dead will go away, as will dark magic of all kinds. My people will have made up for our sins against Nature and be able to channel it again. We will become the strongest race on Earth. It would be ideal to have this prison dimension as an afterlife and to make sure all of us are in the prison or alive on Earth first, but how important is it really to have this dimension? We can prepare and bring ourselves back to life already. If it is a, to use a modern term, controlled demolition, then the loss of the Other Side is a gift rather than a curse to us." Markos sounded so _smug_.

"I didn't betray you!" I shouted. "The Thirteen stomped us and I did my best to stop it! I will build a gate to the Other Side in this prison as soon as I can move freely!"

Markos snapped. "Girl, you have given us nothing. You have no reason to continue to work for us anymore. You use us as your servants and you freed that abomination you call a lover as soon as you could. I believe working with you would be beneficial, but no king would kill his people for disagreeing. Raising Silas is dangerous, but it is a choice for the living."

"GAH!" I screamed and blew my phone apart with telekinetic rage.

[hr][/hr]

" _Klaus_ has the Ascendant?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes." Jeff nodded. I looked out over the dreamscape he'd imagined, which was a torrential downpour into the ocean aside from an island of black stone that we stood on.

"So we can't go after Silas because we need to keep Klaus from blowing up at us, and we can't manage Klaus because we need to go after Silas." I shook my head.

"We are dealing with so many rational, even-tempered people these days." Jeff laughed. "I need you to help Bonnie with a few spells; she has Emily's talisman."

"What the hell are you thinking of doing?" I asked. "She should be fine with the help of spirits on our modified vampire spell."

"That's not it. I want to bond Bonnie to Mikael to grant her great power through use of sacrificial magic on an immortal being." Jeff answered. "Bonnie's on board with that, but to be honest I need you to hack that spell and make sure that if I die my spirit goes into Bonnie's body."

"Is this Plan A or a desperate backup plan?" I asked.

"A bit of both. We need a way to kill Klaus without him knowing anything is wrong before we get the Ascendant and we need to be able to hold it back until we get Esther's permission if we don't want her to decide she's going to spend her time fucking us over. There's a spell Esther did in The Vampire Diaries to make it so if one of the Originals died all of them did. They just need to each have Elena's blood in their system when the spell is cast." Jeff explained.

"Kill one of them, kill all of them, no Original Vampires out for revenge, no surviving vampires defending their sire lines or avenging their friends. Tell Esther about it. That could work." I kissed Jeff, even if it was only a dream.

"If we kill Kol and Rebekah we need a surefire way to keep someone on the material plane or we're at the mercy of Esther and the Travelers. I think if I possess Bonnie we have enough of a foothold on Earth to get us out of the prison dimension so long as we have the Ascendant." Jeff smiled.

"So the plan is to secretly betray everyone but Esther, because everyone who can get revenge will be dead or possessed by you?" I asked. "Don't take that as criticism. I'm impressed."

"We bring some back. Once we understand Qetsiyah's cure for immortality there's no issue with bringing back vampires. If it turns out we can't do that, well, Klaus has given me no choice about not screwing _someone_ over and working with Esther has always risked this." Jeff smiled sadly. "There's no _good_ choices here. Anything we can do gets people hurt and betrays someone's trust. We could cut our ties to Esther and go all in on Klaus's plans for mass murder and slavery instead if we want to save the vampires."

"That sounds like a worse option." I nodded. "Anything else I should know?"

"If Katherine and Vicki can't get Elijah then we'll have _one_ angry Original left to worry about if someone pulls the dagger out of him. Any vampires he sired would probably be on his side, too. I got Damon to swig some of Elena's blood for a protection spell, I've drunk some, and Vicki drank some. That's Kol, Finn and Rebekah out of the way. Klaus drinks Elena's blood to break the curse on him and that's everyone but Elijah and Mikael." Jeff paused. "We probably have to get the dagger out of Mikael for him to be alive enough to drink the blood. I don't think he'd process it if we just poured some down his throat."

"Well that's horrible." I sighed. "Think Bonnie and Luka can keep him down with that sacrificial magic spell you saw on The Originals?"

"Something like that, yes." Jeff said. "I _feel_ that a spell is a lot easier to undo from range or something then it is to pull the dagger out, but as far as I know Mikael doesn't have anyone working on helping get him back to life. Once the dagger is out it will take him a little while to wake up." Jeff paused. "Somewhere between minutes and days, honestly not sure which and I don't have anyone reliable to ask."

"Minutes or _days_?" I asked.

"I remember it happening off screen and the Mikaelsons tended to waffle around a bit when they were um, defrosting so to speak." Jeff sighed. "Maybe I could ask Damon, since he went through it."

"What's Damon doing?" I asked.

"Last I checked he was shouting at Stefan and Lexi about how it was time to kill me. Elena went to calm him down. He is not taking my new plans well, either the public ones or the fact that I clearly have a secret one." Jeff looked down.

"Any chance he'd go off on a mission to stop Silas?"

"No. Actually..." Jeff blinked. "I have a _tremendously_ bad idea. There is someone who probably would drop everything and go after Silas. Someone with the power to see it through."

"I'm intrigued. If we're doing the worst plans we should go all in, right?" I asked.

"Kol." Jeff answered. I blinked.

"Kol, the Mikaelson you're possessing Kol?" I asked.

"He's terrified of Silas. He's met followers of Silas who thought when he rose he'd bring about the end of time. Kol thinks Silas will kill him if he wakes up, which isn't too far from the truth if the Travelers get their way." Jeff frowned. "Should be a lot simpler for you to change a spell that's freeing Kol into a spell that's pulling my spirit out of Kol and putting it into Bonnie as she casts it. So, serious question, do we trust sending a Mikaelson on a mission after we've been using his body as a puppet or do we let Qetsiyah do something she said would kill us all _and_ let a bunch of Silas worshipers dig him up?"

"I never should have siphoned that spell," I muttered.

"You have power and you have the Cure. I don't think we could have anticipated any of _this_ mess?" Jeff said.

"Do we have any leverage on Kol at all?" I asked.

"One." Jeff answered and then looked thoughtful. "Maybe two. We have the Cure, and he wants to go back to being a witch. Also I know who his girlfriend will be. Someone who tried to bring him back from the dead once and someone who I want to do a solid for _anyway_. If we frame it right..." Jeff smiled. "No, _we_ don't have to frame anything." Jeff kissed me. "I have to go, because we need to do this _fast_."

"What are you doing to do?" I asked.

"I'm going to ask Stefan and Elena to do what they do best; bullshit a Mikaelson."

**Wyld**

I returned to my body. Elena was sitting nearby, watching intently.

"Welcome back." Elena said. "Is there anything else you can tell me that might help now that you've seen Lauren?"

I considered the question. "Not new information, but Katerina should be far away enough she won't hear this if I tell you; she has a living daughter. Nadia is alive and I think she is in Europe. She's a vampire, but she definitely wants to meet her mother."

"Katherine has a _daughter_?" Elena sounded incredulous. "She said Klaus killed her family."

"You're her descendant. I think Katerina's father hid the baby as far away from Katerina as possible to hide the shame of a birth out of wedlock. Katerina herself was sent away, found herself in England, and became known as Katherine Pierce. I am sure Katerina had other relatives who can pop out a doppelganger line, but Klaus never found them or else he'd have gotten this curse broken centuries ago." I counted the blood vials I had in a bag. I still had twelve, so no one had stolen any of Elena's blood while I was asleep.

Bonnie walked in. "He wakes," She glared at me.

"Ready to gain Original Vampire power?" I asked the witch.

"Why aren't we bonding Luka to Mikael?" Bonnie asked. "He's a lot more experienced then I am."

"Luka's more experienced, but I trust you a hell of a lot more with extra power," I explained.

"What did you see to make you trust her like that?" Elena asked.

"No one big thing. She simply has a lot of 'tragic hero' moments in the world I saw. If it weren't for you and Stefan she would probably have been one of the greats," I told Elena.

"Why do you hate Elena so much?" Bonnie asked, sounding angry.

I gave an honest and deliberate answer. "She saves monsters. Stefan, Damon, Originals, she cares about them a lot more then she cares about innocent lives. Elena and Stefan will kill and torture any number of people to protect the ones they care about. I'm not saying I'd be any different, but it leaves an impact when I step back and consider how many innocent lives get ruined by Elena's choices."

I saw Elena looked shocked. "Stefan's changed. I don't know why you saw that I would go so far for Damon, but he's Stefan's brother and I can't just let Stefan suffer if I can help it! After everyone I've lost I can't make him feel that way!"

"Of course you'll always choose each other. That's your choice, but there are _consequences_ to that. People are already dead who were alive in the timeline I saw because of _me_ , so I'm not saying you're wrong, but I know the worst you can do and I am afraid of it." I sighed. "We shouldn't fight over this. Everything should work out. You and Stefan should live long and happy lives as humans once Lauren reverse engineers the Cure. You'll get boring, ordinary jobs and donate to charities and give more to the world then you take from it like most people do. I'll protect Mystic Falls in exchange for occasional blood donations to handle a crisis or pay a debt."

"You've certainly got it all planned out." Elena sounded mad.

"Point blank, do you want to be a vampire?" I asked.

"No!" Elena answered.

" **Don't lie to me _,_** " I said with the power of compulsion behind it.

"I don't know what I want, but I know I can't be a vampire without losing the people closest to me." Elena answered. "I am afraid of what I'd be if I was a vampire, but I hate being dependent on Stefan for survival."

"Do you resent Bonnie for being a witch?" I asked, sincerely curious.

"No. I wish I was a witch, but what Bonnie can do is amazing and I am glad she has it." Elena practically smirked.

"Stop compelling her!" Bonnie shouted, looking furious.

"Okay. **Be free of my compulsion.** " I nodded at Bonnie. "I admit I have to respect our doppelganger a little more, now."

"Damn it." Vicki barged in. "You are the last two people in my life I want bonding."

"Can you at least tell me who she is, if you make _me_ tell you the truth?" Elena asked, pointing at the blonde Original body Vicki was inhabiting.

"She has a point." Bonnie nodded.

"No she doesn't!" Vicki shot back.

"Nina, take these two." I handed her two of my doppelganger blood vials. "Hide them somewhere you don't think I would look. We might need it later."

"Got it." Vicki nodded. "What do I do after that?"

"I'll need her." Elena's doppelganger poked her head through the door. "I've got a plan for getting Elijah, but I need some dumb muscle." Katherine tapped Vicki's shoulder. I watched Vicki bristle but decided there was no use getting in the middle of a cat fight.

"Okay. Report to Katerina after you do that assignment." I told Vicki.

"Really?" Vicki asked me, sounding plaintive.

"I want Elijah. Katerina, you _do_ have a good plan for that, right?" I asked.

"I've got Luka and all the baby vampires running around nice and ready." Katherine smiled. "I've ran from Klaus long enough to know how he'll have his brother defended."

"Okay, you guys go ahead." I nodded at Katherine and turned. "Bonnie, we need to wake up Tyler. It's time to make a Hybrid."

[hr][/hr]

"Hi." I walked into the Salvatore common room with Elena while Bonnie gathered the werewolf and the pre-wolf. Stefan and Lexi were cleaning up shattered glass. "Damon didn't kill any of you."

"Not this time." Lexi said. "I've heard rumors that you know he does it in the future?"

"I saw him do it in _a_ future. Actually, a past. Divergent timeline. Damon hates you, so I'd scram as soon as you think you can." I turned to Stefan. "Protect her, you're lost without her unless Caroline turns. Caroline's a _really good_ sober coach."

"Caroline, my friend Caroline?" Elena asked.

"Yes. Best vampire in the divergent timeline. Her mom's dead in this one by the way and Klaus was compelling her, but I did ask him not to kill her and he might not do it if he thinks they're leverage over us." I said to Elena.

"You're not exactly the most comforting bearer of bad news," Stefan frowned.

"Sorry. I'm on a short fuse." Bonnie entered the room with Tyler and Mason. "Ready to go?"

"Do you have Emily's talisman?" I asked.

"Yes, why?" Bonnie asked.

"I want Lauren to help you with the spells on Mikael. I'm worried about moving him to the place where the witches died with Klaus running around." I explained. "Also, there's another spell you need to do for me and I don't have time to teach it to you, so you have to channel what Lauren does."

"Don't you need me?" Tyler asked, sounding angry.

"Honestly you're about priority _seven_ on my list right now. I could use an Original Hybrid, but unless you're up for a dangerous mission that uses none of your talents I need something else more." I looked at Stefan. "I need Bonnie to get my spirit out of Kol's body, and I need you and Elena to convince him to go on that mission."

"What?" Stefan asked.

"Jesus Christ!" Bonnie shouted.

"You want to free an Original and have us manipulate him for you?" Elena asked.

"I was talking to Lauren. _Bad shit_ is going down. Limited apocalypse tier bad. It has to be taken care of before the full moon tonight." I closed my eyes and got my story straight. "Silas, the world's first immortal being, is about to be raised from his imprisonment. If that happens, a chain of events will be unleashed that could among other things raise every dead supernatural being on the Other Side and then kill every vampire in the world. Kol is a vampire and he would rather the world did not end." I paused. "Someone get me a map! I need to show you guys where Silas is."

"You just learned about this _now_?" Elena asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. I'd do this myself but this is too important and I'm too much of a fuck up, so we're trading me for Kol," I lied. The main constraint here was human resources, and I was trading my possession of Kol for possessing Bonnie.

"Here." Bonnie put out her hand and a book flew into it. "Book of maps."

"Good." I began flipping through it. "Some two-hundred miles off the coast of Canada, ah, I see it. Get me a pen," I told Bonnie, who did much the same trick as she had done on the book summoning. "Thank you." I marked the spot.

"You're going along with this?" Lexi asked Bonnie.

"Do you think he'd give up possessing an Original if this wasn't real?" Bonnie asked.

"Nina can take it from here," I smiled when I used Vicki's pseudonym. "If I want a world to escape to I need Silas taken care of, and Kol's the only person I trust to do it."

"What about us?" Lexi asked. "Stefan and I can go and do it. I'll call John and it will be three vampires."

"Three vampires against Silas and his followers? You're nothing on an Original." I shook my head. "Who's John again?"

"My boyfriend." Lexi said. "Don't you know everything?"

"You died and John didn't hang out with Stefan. I saw him try to kill Damon once and Elena talked him out of it." I sighed. "Alright, if Kol doesn't agree right away, here's what you need to know. Kol has a soulmate he hasn't met yet, and I'll tell him her name and where she lives. She's a witch, beautiful and powerful and intelligent. She can beat Klaus single handed. She also is _really_ going to need friends soon. Also, I have the Cure, and am going to try to reverse engineer it so I can use it on people who want it. Kol misses being a witch." I racked my brains for more information on Kol. "Oh! The dagger. He wants a gold dagger that can work on Klaus. Not sure how that works. I'll help him with it if I get out."

"Is that all?" Stefan asked.

"If Klaus breaks the Ascendant, Nina will murder all of you so don't try anything clever. So long as Elena is linked to Finn's body she can't die from what Klaus wants to do, so suck it up, doppelganger." I looked at Elena.

"I know what Klaus is like when he's angry! Everyone tells me. If he's angry he will kill everyone I love, and if Nina's angry she'll do the same. I get it!" Elena shouted.

"Silas rises, your brother and aunt and boyfriend die," I whispered. "That's not a threat, it's a consequence of events I saw. Now, Bonnie, ready to get superpowers, shut me up, and get Kol ready?" I pulled the vials of Elena's blood out of my pocket and handed them to Bonnie, who put them in a purse.

"Wait." Bonnie frowned. "You want to link me to Mikael and get your spirit out of Kol's body _before_ we make Tyler an Original?"

"You can do it. You'll have all those dead witches for help." I answered.

"Okay." Bonnie nodded. "Let's go to the basement and set up the Mikael channeling thing."

[hr][/hr]

Lexi and Elena lit candles all around the grim cell that held Mikael. Mason and Stefan sat on either side of Mikael and I wrote signs in chalk. Bonnie downed her own vial of Elena's blood.

"Okay." I looked at my work. "We're ready to pull out the dagger."

"Are you sure this is necessary?" Stefan asked.

I pulled the dagger out of Mikael's back. " _No_ , but I think it is and being _sure_ would take too much time." I poured a vial of Elena's blood into Mikael's desiccated throat and I saw his color begin to change. "Bonnie!" I pushed my hand into Mikael's chest, digging into the calcified flesh and hearing ribs crack until I reached a heart that was already beating.

" _A vita ex alii, is ea po traho, adima disero._ **"** Bonnie chanted the incantation I had taught her. One hand followed the wound I had made in Mikael right into his heart while the other clasped Emily's talisman and let Bonnie channel Lauren's power. I felt more flesh calcify and Mikael's heart stopped beating.

"Ready for overwhelming power?" I asked her, and Bonnie nodded and closed her eyes.

_"Symbole du masque et de l'ombre, embrace-toi. Embrace-toi."_ Bonnie did a French incantation from one of Jonas Martin's grimoires to cast a sacrificial spell. The candles flared high as Bonnie connected with them. I felt Bonnie's hands change texture, becoming tougher and warmer. I pulled our hands out and used a flash of telekinesis to clean the mess off our hands.

"See. No problem at all." I smiled at everyone.

Bonnie gasped, breathing hard. "Oh my god. Is it like this all the time? I feel amazing!" She smiled at Stefan and Lexi.

"It's pretty good," Lexi admitted.

"Wow." Bonnie picked up a chain lying on the walls and broke the links apart with her hands.

"Can I touch the talisman? I'd like to see Lauren before I go into the dark." I asked.

"Of course." Bonnie handed it to me.

<I'm ready.> Lauren told me.

<I love you. I'm sorry I am asking you to do this.> I told the necklace, and handed it back to Bonnie.

Bonnie closed her eyes and the candles flashed again. " _Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Raverus En Phasmatos Ex Sonos. Resistamus Et Veram Vatus. Raverus Phasmatos Ex Sonos."_ I felt a wind whip through the cell and then collapsed into disorientation. Something felt wrong with the room all of a sudden and I was looking at Kol's face.

<It's done,> Lauren told me.

"Bonnie!" Elena touched my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I smiled at her. "I'm just glad he's gone." I gestured at Kol's body. Kol was blinking and looking _very_ confused.

"So," Stefan sat down next to Kol. "This is going to take some explaining. What do you know about a man called Silas?"

"You pulled out the dagger." Kol said softly. "Who are you people?" He looked at Elena. " _Katerina_?"

"She's the latest doppelganger." Stefan explained.

"Silas. Do you work for him!" Kol's eyes flashed with panic.

"Nope. According to a source of information we can't help but take seriously, Silas is going to rise and unleash hell on Earth or something. He was scared enough of Silas to give up possessing your body in the hopes you would stop Silas from rising."

" _How long was I out_?" Kol asked with dismay.

"Hi, Kol." Lexi leaned down. "Oh, hundred years, give or take. Welcome to the twenty-first century." Lexi smiled. "The witch possessing your body said that if I were to tell you where Silas was, and that a bunch of his followers were getting close to him, you would go and kill him for us?"

"Alexia." Kol smiled. "It's been a while."

"You two know each other?" Stefan asked.

"I sired her." Kol said.

"I thought it was best to wait to mention that until after Kyle Reese was out of the picture." Lexi explained. "Oh Kol, you're going to _love_ movies."

"Silas..." Kol nodded. "Buried with the only thing that can kill him clutched in his very hands. I will gladly shove the cure down his throat. What _else_ is going on, though?" Kol asked.

"A lot of things. Klaus is about to break his curse and become the Original Hybrid. Elijah is daggered. Finn and Rebekah are possessed like you were." Stefan slapped Kol on the back. "I'm staying here to try and keep things under control, but Lexi is going to get you to Silas's island."

"Bonnie, are you alright?" Elena asked again.

"Still fine. Just a bit woozy." I smiled. "This new power, it's a lot to get used to."

"Okay, let's go before something bad happens." Mason said and he took me by the arm.

"Sounds good to me." I stood up and stumbled in Bonnie's high heels.

"You okay?" Mason asked.

"Um." I kicked the shoes off. "Something about my balance is out of wack. I should be fine for the spell." I checked Bonnie's purse, which had the materials needed to make a vampire; Mikael White Oak Stake and Elena's blood.

[hr][/hr]  
I was relieved to get away from people who knew Bonnie well. Elena's instincts worried me, but hopefully she'd be distracted by for now.

I muttered a few incantations under my breath to conceal any mystical signs of possessing Bonnie as Mason drove me and Tyler out to the abandoned house. I noticed that for the first time in months I was free of blood lust. My head felt very clear. Bonnie's head, that is.

"Why do you think Jeff wanted Elijah, anyway?" Tyler asked the car.

"He wanted to be in control of every Original. I guess he was worried that if Elijah got loose he might stop Klaus, and then Klaus would take the anger out on Jeff." I suggested.

"I guess." Tyler smiled. "I can't believe that the crazy ghost guy was obsessed with giving me superpowers."

"I know, right?" I nodded along with what Tyler was saying.

"Good thing he's gone." Mason said. "I was afraid we'd have to go through with it."

"Yeah!" Tyler slapped my back and laughed. He looked puzzled at my confusion. I considered the use of compulsion to fix the problem, but held back in case I could pull out of things without risking backlash from that.

"Uhuh." I nodded my head. "Why don't you want superpowers?"

"Wait, did you change your mind?" Tyler asked. You and your Grams said it would turn me into a monster. Going against the balance of nature and all that."

I closed my eyes to regroup. "I mean, it might, but the spirits are the ones who decide what happens when Nature is angry and we've got a bunch of them who think it's a good counter to Klaus. I mean, without you to protect them he might just make you kill someone and then turn you into a Hybrid anyway."

"Elena's made a deal!" Mason shouted. "None of her friends get hurt! Tyler's her friend! Klaus turns me into his Hybrid and I won't have to turn anymore!"

"Oh crap." I said. " _You_ want to be a Hybrid?"

"I want to stop turning on the full moon. If Klaus is the best option for that, then I'm taking it so long as Tyler doesn't become a werewolf." Mason answered.

"So just fuck Jules the werewolf, then?" I asked, feeling anger rise. "Fuck the entire pack?"

"Language!" Mason shouted back. "You promised you'd talk Jeff out of it and now you think he was _right_?"

"Tyler, we don't have to do this, but I thought you'd want this," I said. I tried to regain composer. "Jeff was talking to me. He said that there were other ways of helping werewolves, especially with a Hybrid."

"Nina told us all about that. Every fantasy he could make up. Ancient marriages and magic rings. That guy just wanted to keep us quiet until he got what he wanted. Klaus, he's real." Mason explained.

"Dude, chill." Tyler said to his uncle. "She's just trying to help."

"She wants you to kill someone! That's how you become a werewolf. That means it's part of becoming a Hybrid. Not you, Tyler! Not you!" Mason slammed on his breaks and took us to the side of the road. "Bonnie, get out of the car. Tyler and I are leaving."

"Tyler..." I fought for something to say.

"Bonnie, just go." Tyler looked sad. I pondered what Tyler's real feelings were, but they were unknowable. Tyler grew up in a household with the werewolf gene for violence, and he had to be guarding himself around Mason. I got out of the car, barely remembering to grab Bonnie's purse.

I controlled my breathing. Everything was going according to plan. Katherine just had to get Elijah, and Elena's blood into Elijah, and then I simply needed to get to one of the Originals and I could link them. Everything was going to be fine.

[hr][/hr]

I sat in the Mystic Grill and compelled a lunch on the house. Bonnie's body was hungry and I had no idea where Mason and Tyler had gone, so no money or credit cards. I wore Emily's talisman and communicated with Lauren.

<I'm projecting to the Other Side. Vicki is miles away with Katherine. Oh, Vicki just killed that witch of Klaus who isn't as important as Greta. Ah, and now we have a vampire gang war. I wondered why Katherine thought she needed so many vampires. Looks like Klaus had a few dozen he compelled to guard Elijah's body.>

<Good on Katherine,> I said via magical telepathy. <Tell me if anyone important dies.>

<I can't find Klaus. I was hoping I could use Vicki for the tracking spell but the connection is too weak. Damon is tearing apart Wickery Bridge for some reason.> Lauren reported.

<Did you check Caroline's house?> I asked.

<Yep. Caroline thinks her mother went out of town for a legal thing with Caroline's dad. Poor girl. Klaus is paranoid enough I doubt we'll find him until he takes Elena.> Lauren said.

<He's probably moving back into his real body. Maybe check Matt's house?> I suggested. I looked around the Grill.

<Are you sure this is better then running off to kill Silas and leaving Vicki in charge?> Lauren asked.

<Not entirely, but I'm a real witch again. Bonnie's bloodline is very powerful. All I need to do is make sure Klaus gets the moonstone and the doppelganger and then we can trade Rebekah for the Ascendant. Once we do that we're golden.> I pointed out.

<It might take some time to figure out how to open the Ascendant. The Thirteen were using some celestial cycle to power their entrance. I researched the Ascendants, but I made my dimension in a moment of panic using a spell that was heavily improvised, so it might take some time to navigate safely back and forth.> Lauren said.

"Damn it," I said out loud. No one nearby noticed. <At least it's better then having to convince a randomly appearing witch to get us out. That jumpchain drawback looked nearly impossible.>

"Ah, the Bennett Witch." I heard a voice and looked up. Klaus was in his true body; I was pretty sure the actor was named Joseph Morgan now that I saw him.

"Hello, Klaus." I smiled.

"You know what I look like?" Klaus sounded surprised.

"Um..." I frowned. "Jeff's psychic. He shared your face with everyone via mind stuff."

"Interesting." Klaus sat down next to me. "It is fortunate that I ran into you, as he's my current problem and I believe you to be the solution. What do you think of him?"

"What do I think of Jeff?" I asked. "Um, he's useful."

"He's completely insane." Klaus laughed out loud. "I love how _he_ is the one the Original Witch is working with. The two lunatics deserve each other."

"Be that as it may, they're both extremely dangerous. Why are you _here_ , exactly?" I asked.

"Among his various ramblings, Jeff said he had my _father_ and the White Oak Stake in his back pocket. I want both." Klaus explained.

"Did he now?" I asked. "How do you expect me to help?"

"You're a Bennett Witch. Klaus said. "Here." He pulled out Tupperware jar from his pocket. "Eijiah's blood. You do a tracking spell for Mikael with his son's blood."

"You have your own witches," I pointed out.

"They're occupied," Klaus said simply. "We only have a few hours before the full moon. Neither one could find Mikael, which leads me to believe you're the one who cloaked his location. The people I trust have a lot to do, and don't have the time to uncover him."

"You turned my Grams," I said. "Why _would_ I help you?"

"Besides the obvious threat of death?" Klaus smiled at me.

"About that." I smiled and threw a knife into his chest with the strength I was channeling from Mikael. "Your father is _exactly_ where I want him to be. Jeff knows how to use a captured Original."

"You're channeling him." Klaus nodded. "That is clever. You also just admitted you know where he is."

"I do." I paused. "If I betray Jeff I need leverage on him. As you said, that guy's crazy."

"You're still a living girl, even if you are channeling a vampire. I have fought for a thousand years. I can still kill you," Klaus whispered.

"Kill me, and the connection I have with Mikael breaks. Mikael's power is no longer drained for me. What if he wakes up?" I asked.

"I could simply start murdering townsfolk until I find someone you care about," Klaus suggested.

"No need for that." I smiled. "If I get the Ascendant then Jeff won't touch me no matter how much he wants to. Everyone wins, no one has to die except for your father."

"Interesting." Klaus nodded.

"I'd be vulnerable to _you_ , so it's not like I'd screw you on this," I pointed out.

"Without the White Oak Stake I cannot _kill_ Mikael, though." Klaus said.

"He's desiccated. You could throw him down a well full of vervain until you find him. Grab some of his blood and find the White Oak Stake with it," I suggested.

Klaus frowned. "Interesting. You've thought this through."

"Also," I gambled, "You won't need to." I pulled Mikael's White Oak Stake from my purse. Klaus snatched it instantly. "Jeff had a plan that needed it, but his plan just fell through."

"You're talking about his Hybrid." Klaus said.

"I just found out Mason was talking to you. Is his whole pack with him?" I asked.

"One of the dunderheads already volunteered to die so I could turn the rest of them into my Hybrids." Klaus shook his head. "I never expected it to be this easy." He pulled out his cellphone. "One moment." I saw him dial and I waited.

" _Katerina_ ," He said a second later. I channeled Mikael's vampire hearing and listened into the conversation.

"Your pet witch is dead, Klaus." I heard Katherine gloat.

"I'll kill you," Klaus whispered into the phone.

"What else is new?" Katherine asked. "I have your brother, and I have the rock Jeff cares so much about. I even have the moonstone binding your curse."

" _Vodus_." I stopped Klaus by jamming the White Oak Stake right into his heart as my telekinesis wrapped around the weapon. Everyone in the Grill stared as Klaus exploded into flames and I leapt away. A second later I summoned the melting phone into my hand.

"Hi, Kat," I said. "You won't _believe_ what just happened."

"What do you mean?" I heard Katherine's voice.

"I had the White Oak Stake. I was connected to Mikael. Klaus didn't have the Ascendant to hang over my head." I paused. "I'm possessing Bonnie, by the way."

" _Jeff_?" Katherine's voice was amazed.

I smiled as everyone in the Grill ran. "Bring me the Ascendant."

"What makes you think I wasn't lying to Klaus?" Katherine asked. My blood ran cold.

"Katherine, your daughter's alive," I hedged.

_"What_?" Katherine asked.

"Vampire alive." I added. "I'll tell you everything I know the second you bring me the Ascendant."

"Where are you?" Katherine shouted.

"Mystic Falls Grill where Matt works," I answered. I literally heard the whoosh of vampire speed on the other end of the line. I glared at the fire, pushing it down, and waited.

[hr][/hr]

Katherine arrived in the Grill.

"Magic rock." I held out my hand.

"I don't have it _on me_ ," Katherine laughed. "So, what is this about my daughter?"

" **Tell me where the Ascendant is _,"_** I demanded.

Katherine shook all over. " _No_ ," She answered.

"That's new." I shrugged.

"Did you think I didn't notice when you wiped my memory?" Katherine asked. "I made sure that wouldn't happen again."

"A spell?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" Katherine asked. I sighed. The sire line bomb would not go off instantly, but it was ticking down. "I killed Klaus for you. Doesn't that earn me any good will?"

"You're a deceptive little beast. Not _enough_." Katherine answered.

"Okay." I sighed. "Let me guess. You'd need to _find_ Nadia before you tell me if you even have the damned thing or not?"

"Of course." Katherine laughed.

"Is now a good time to mention that without the crystal you're not coming back to life?" I asked.

Katherine froze. _"What?"_

I gestured at the pile of ashes. "Esther did something to her children. The whole sireline is going to die." I closed my eyes dramatically. "In fact, I think I _saw_ a sire line die in the future."

"You, you lying piece of..." Katherine shook in front of me, furious and terrified.

"Have I ever told you about Amara?" I asked.

"My daughter?" Katherine asked. The beautiful doppelganger was standing very still.

"No. One of the first Immortals. The doppelgangers descend from them, both by blood and by being their echo. You know I can put people into new bodies. Amara's been alive for two thousand years. She's not happy about it, but I can fix that issue. I put your soul in her body, stop Qetsiyah's torturing it, and you get to live forever in a body that's got something frankly superior to Original tier immortality." I explained. "You know I can do it. You know I work _very_ hard to keep the letter of my promises. If you give me the Ascendant I promise I will put you in Amara's body and cure the issues with it so you live an immortal, safe existence."

Katherine silently pulled a strange clockwork contraption from her picket. At the center was a white crystal. "This is what Klaus's witch was holding onto." She glared at me. "If you're lying..."

"I'm not." I touched Katherine's shoulder. "Your daughter is named Nadia. Five hundred years ago she turned herself into a vampire so she could keep looking for her biological mother. She knows it is Katherine Pierce, but you're a very hard lady to find. I think she's in Paris right now, or at least somewhere in Europe working for the Travelers. She _really_ wants to meet you." I paused. "When you were dying in the original timeline I saw, she offered to let you share her body until they figured out something better. That's how much she wants to know you."

"Hell." Katherine sat down besides me as the Mystic Falls fire department barged in. "I don't want to die."

"It's not forever," I said. "You're Katherine Pierce; I doubt you even need my help to come back from the dead."

[hr][/hr]

I sat in Elena's living room, waiting for the vampires to arrive. Katherine had gone to tell them what had happened. I heard a wind, and I was surrounded by two angry vampires.

"What the hell!" Jeremy shouted at me.

"Turns out if you kill an original, the Sire Line dies with it." I explained. "I had to make a choice, kill Klaus or not kill Klaus. Let Klaus live, and god knows what he'll end up doing."

Stefan rammed me against the wall. "Are you _sure_?" He asked, teeth clenched.

"Ninety five percent, maybe?" I answered. "Klaus is a slippery little bugger and I never _saw_ him die with his sire line with it. But it happened to Finn and his line, and Kol's, in my visions."

"Why!?" Shouted Jeremy.

"Klaus would have continued to kill, torture, rape, kidnap, abuse, and create other people who would do the same and worse. Marcel Gerard in New Orleans is running a little empire of monsters just like it. Damon, Stefan, Katherine, all of them leave a trail of corpses. I'll admit it, I knew! I'm sorry, but I did." I looked at Jeremy. "I'm sorry I had to hurt all of you."

"I sired Pearl." Katherine walked in holding a blood bag and a bottle of whisky. "See you on the other side, Little Gilbert."

"No!" Stefan shouted. "It can't end like this."

"Death is not the end," I said. "I'll do my best to pull you back from the Other Side when it's convenient. I owe that to your brother if nothing else."

"Can't you at least free Bonnie?" Jeremy asked. "What'd she do to you?"

"I did what I thought I had to do. Bonnie's a nearly ideal host for me." I said. "I'll try to make it up for her, but not sure how I could."

"Just tell us the truth," Katherine said with a tired sigh. "What's really going on?"

"Huh." I sat down next to her. "Really, that's what you want to know? So do I. The truth in my head is insane. I don't think it would give you any comfort even if it's true."

"Try me." Katherine leaned forward.

"Before I showed up in the prison world, I was not a witch, I lived in a world like you did before you met the Salvatores. No magic I knew of. No vampires or gods besides the ones people worshiped. I watched a television show that depicted events very similar to the ones you all lived through. One day, I encountered someone I can't explain, a creature that looked like a monster, and she seemed to kill me. Then I was in the world I saw on TV, give or take some forgetfulness or minor changes." I answered. "Does that help _anyone_ to know?"

"This is crazy." Jeremy said.

"Yes." I nodded at him. "It is." I looked around at the three. "I expected more of you. This town is full of vampires."

"Jenna's with Elena. Sheila is recovering from her neck being snapped in the fight." Jeremy answered.

"I'm suggesting you say goodbye to whoever it is you care about," I told them. "You don't have long unless I am _very_ mistaken."

"I..." Stefan nodded and vanished. Jeremy raised his fist, shook his head, and speed off as well. Katherine was the only one left.

"Amara..." Katherine whispered. "You're not just making this up. I always wondered where I came from. I thought it had something to do with the curse on Klaus, but I was never sure." She shook her head. "Is Nadia from Klaus's line?"

"I don't know. Not from Kol or Finn's. That leaves a one in three shot she'll die, but I'm sure we can find her eventually." I looked at her. "I might be able to use your blood, but she was ripped right from your arms at birth, so the connection might be weaker."

"You say it was _television_?" Katherine asked with disgust. "What, did you get off on watching people suffer?"

"Don't you?" I asked. "I felt bad for you, but there was a distance to it. Nina Dobrev performed as Amara and her doppelgangers and she channeled your pain. It's not a show for everyone."

"To hell with that!" Katherine raised her glass to me and then drank it in one swallow. "See you in Hell."

"Not if I can help it." I assured her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Wyld**  
  
I sat in Elena's kitchen and examined the corpse of Katherine Pierce. The grey flesh seemed to be reacting to some mystical lack of energy. In principle I wanted to understand it better, but the important thing was that the blood was still in the body and I'd found rope in Elena's basement. It was simple to tie Katherine up by her feet and search for a plastic tub. After a minute I had the tub ready and slashed Katherine's throat to let the blood fall into the tub. Doppelganger blood was valuable; waste not want not.  
  
Once I was done I considered the body. Katherine was a pretty terrible person, but she was a product of her circumstances. I took Katherine out into the yard. " _Incendia_." I whispered, and she burst into blue flames for a few moments before the mystical fire ran out of fuel and died. Katherine Pierce was a pile of ash and a tub of blood.  
  
I went inside and picked up the tub, carrying it to the downstairs refrigerator, which I emptied with a muttered _vodus_ so I could freeze Katherine's blood. The fridge had not been cleaned out since the Gilbert parents had died, leaving several fuzzy leftovers and a few bottles of old beer the only casualties of this project.  
  
I sat down on the basement floor and thought for a minute. I had the Ascendant. I had Emily's talisman, linked to the Gemini Coven Prison and Lauren. I had the body of Bonnie Bennett, a powerful witch. I was channeling the power of Mikael, the Original Vampire Hunter. Overall I was in a strong position. Further, the moon would be at its apex in a few hours, making it the right time for magic. I needed to secure my resources. It was time to head back to the Salvatore House.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I entered the boarding house. I heard sobbing and entered the common room to see Elena sitting with Stefan's body. Stefan's blood might have use like Katherine's, so that was going to be unpleasant.  
  
" _You_." Elena looked at me with incredible venom. "You knew! You knew what was going to happen. You didn't even tell me!"  
  
"I take it you heard I'm not Bonnie," I stated.  
  
Elena screamed at me in response. "Get out of her!"  
  
"I'm sorry, Elena. I wish I could say more, but what would it matter? If I can I will raise the dead. Hurt me and you just hurt Bonnie. I have work to do." I left Elena and started down the stairs. A second later I heard Elena following me.  
  
"Get out!" Elena shouted again.  
  
"If you're going to stick around, **be helpful and put a line of salt around Mikael** _."_ I instructed. Elena began to do just that as I popped out a vial of her blood.  
  
"What is wrong with you?" Elena asked.  
  
"I have work to do if I want to protect Bonnie's body." I picked up the silver dagger that had been inside Mikael until earlier in the day. "This'll do." I poured Elena's blood onto it and held it in front of me with telekinesis. The silver dagger and the blood melted into a sphere and cooled before my eyes.  
  
"What is that?" Elena asked.  
  
"It's a talisman for casting spells using Mikael as an anchor." I explained. "In a couple hours I am going to be casting several spells where this is useful."  
  
"How will this protect Bonnie?' Elena asked.  
  
"One of these spells will be like the Gilbert Ring you may or may not know about. There's a limited healing factor that kicks in when the subject dies. With doppelganger blood, Emily Bennett made a version that protected the innocent from death at the hands of the supernatural. Emily channeled the deaths of people killed by vampires, calling on Nature for a counter to Katherine's kills. I am going to do a more absolute version that will bring Bonnie back from the dead as long as the spells sustaining Mikael remain." I rambled.  
  
"Does Bonnie even want that?" Elena asked.  
  
"Not as far as I know. I'm doing this for me. I'm protecting Bonnie because I live here for now and I don't know how long this will last. All goes well it will only be for a few days, but I've learned to prepare for the worst." I started preparing candles and a water bottle.  
  
"Will she even be able to fix herself when you're done?" Elena sounded frantic.  
  
"I think so. Bonnie's a good witch." I emptied some of the water onto the ground and then I poured another vial of Elena's blood into the bottle and saw the water change color. I grimaced at the pain Bonnie's body gave as I cut my finger and put it in the water bottle.  
  
"What the hell is _that_ for?" Elena asked.  
  
"Spell to protect the house. Mikael's in the basement, so when the moon reaches its apex I am casting a spell on the property to keep anyone from entering, period. Bonnie's blood will seal the enchantment, keeping anyone but a Bennett Witch from breaking the spell." I looked at Elena. "Do you really want to know?"  
  
"It gives me something to think about. Can you let me go?" Elena asked. She'd finished the circle around Klaus.  
  
I sighed. "Honestly I'd really rather not. If Amara dies, your blood is an ingredient in a spell the Travelers want to cast that could have apocalyptic consequences. Every vampire in the world dies, Travelers regain their full power, the creations of black magic and spirit magic are undone. I was thinking I'd stash you somewhere safe until that mess is taken care of."  
  
"You care about vampires _now_?" Elena asked. The teenager's voice was growing more hysterical.  
  
"That's honestly a good question." I frowned. "I wanted to use your blood to kill all of the Mikaelsons. With your blood in each one I could have linked them together so they shared wounds and staked Rebekah or Mikael to stake them all. Now Mikael's stake is burned up inside Klaus, so I'm settling for sealing Mikael down here." I considered the water bottle and emptied some of it onto the salt circle surrounding Mikael. " _Otum adnarvet esnavit atim. Terra mora vantis quo incandis per vasa quo errum signos."_  
  
"What's _that_ for?" Elena asked with desperation in her voice.  
  
"If no one can enter the house that's good. Another layer is better. Mikael can't leave the salt line, now, even with telekinesis or other tricks. " I looked over the salt line. "Okay, we're good." I raised my new talisman and channeled it, confirming the link to Mikael worked through the spell.  
  
"So I'm what, your slave now?" Elena asked.  
  
"Slave would imply I need your labor. Captive is more accurate, as I just need your blood. Hopefully this will just be an unpleasant memory for the both of us, soon." I began walking up the stares. " **Follow me.** "  
  
"You say you're bringing them back." Elena almost whined. "How?"  
  
"I can bring a spirit from the Other Side into the Prison World that traps me. If all goes well with the Ascendant I can do that and then let them walk through whatever magic portal I make and live as corporeal ghosts. Plan B is anchoring the spirits to my true body and other things, granting them enough power to stay in the physical world. Plan C is to dig up spells on brute forcing resurrection through mystic power." I entered the common room again. "The next step is incredibly unpleasant. I'm going to drain Stefan of blood."  
  
" _Why_?" Elena screeched.  
  
"Stefan's a doppelganger like you. His blood has mystical properties. If I have his blood I might be able to mix it with yours and Katherine's to do better spells. Maybe with three doppelgangers providing blood I could crack a door into the Other Side from this dimension. With vampire doppelganger blood available maybe I could transform ghosts into something more relevant to the physical world. Okay, I'm making this up as I go along, but I'd rather have it and not need it as opposed to needing the blood but not having it."  
  
"You're _sick_ ," Elena said with passion.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Lauren**  
  
It felt like I was spending more time on the Other Side then in my real body lately. Kol and Lexi were flying a biplane to Silas's island, as apparently Lexi had learned to fly. It was about two hours until the full moon.  
  
I felt Qetsiyah's presence next to me on the plane. "I didn't expect you to send the Old One. It is not a bad plan."  
  
"Why do _you_ call them Old Ones?" I asked. "You're way older."  
  
"Well, they're older than almost anything else I have to deal with and they made up 'Originals' themselves. It sounds pretentious." Qetsiyah rolled her eyes.  
  
"You said you were working with people who would kill me. Do you mind explaining more?" I asked.  
  
"I mind," Qetsiyah answered. "But if it motivates you, there is a sacrifice to be performed, blood to spill, and a new Brotherhood to bring an end to all abominations."  
  
"Hunted by the Brotherhood," I whispered. "Jeff told me a band of superpowered hunters might be a problem."  
  
"I hate precogs so much." Qetsiyah shook her head. "You know the Travelers are already on the island, right? If Kol hasn't at least killed _them_ by the time the Harvest is ready I'm going to make new Hunters."  
  
"Is there _anything_ I can do to make you change your mind?" I asked.  
  
"Kill Silas yourself." Qetsiyah laughed. "You think you're hot stuff, break out first."  
  
"Or..." I considered. "You know I can destroy the Other Side if I reach Amara."  
  
"What?" Qetsiyah turned on me.  
  
"The Other Side is anchored to Amara, if Jeff's right. I'm a Siphoner. I can just pull and pull on the spell until it breaks. Silas and Amara meet again as immortals, or go to the same afterlife. I am threatening, Qestsiyah." I glared at Qetsiyah.  
  
"You wouldn't dare." The ancient spirit frowned.  
  
"I'm a Siphoner and a powerful witch. Even if you came back from the dead I'd win a fight with you. Keep your crazy in your pants and let me finish off Silas on my own time or I'll make sure you wasted the last two thousand years." I laughed in Qetsiyah's face.  
  
"Bluff. Called." Qetsiyah disappeared.  
  
"I may have miscalculated," I whispered to myself.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
**Wyld**  
  
I was going over the Salvatore House for anything I might find useful. Stefan's diaries were safely copied in the prison world. Bonnie's grimoire was stashed in a bag. There were only a couple of blood packs remaining in the basement with the recent rise in the local vampire population.  
  
Elena's phone rang. She looked at it. I read her mind, and saw it was Jeremy's phone, but we both knew Jeremy was dead. Elena answered it.  
  
"Where is everyone?" I heard Rebekah's voice, still a bit accented under Vicki, but the accent was fading by now.  
  
" **Give that to me.** " I held out my hand and took Elena's phone. "Hi, Nina. It's Jeff possessing Bonnie. Lot's happened."  
  
"Bonnie's Grams fell over dead. Did you do something?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Klaus is dead, Kol's going after Silas, and I've got the magical artifact that we need. Meet me at the Salvatore House."  
  
"I've got Elijah." Vicki said after a moment. "I didn't take out the dagger."  
  
"Hm, don't take out the dagger if you can avoid it in that case. It's not critical, but my old plan that required feeding him has to be looked at again." I sighed. "See you soon."  
  
"See you." Vicki hung up.  
  
"Why does she have Jeremy's phone?" Elena asked.  
  
"She knows the password I guess." I shrugged.  
  
"Oh my god." Elena whispered. "She knows us, she's got feelings for Jeremy and she's dead. Damon thought threatening Matt would get to her. She's _Vicki_ , isn't she?"  
  
"Well I'll see if she wants to compel you to forget that when she arrives, but yes. I knew the future and I knew she'd die, and I needed the help of a ghost." I nodded. "You're a smart girl."  
  
"Who is Nina Dobrev?" Elena asked after a moment. "Why is she using that as her name?"  
  
"She's one of your doppelgangers," I said, trying to be casual. "Vicki got a kick out of things I told her about that one." I paused. "I'm sorry and this is a long shot, but I have to ask; **tell me if the names Paul Wesley, Candice Accola, Joseph Morgan or Nina Dobrev mean anything to you.** "  
  
"No." Elena answered. "I have no idea who those people are."  
  
"Damn." I shook my head. "It would have explained a lot."  
  
I heard a whoosh of air and a knock on the door. I went and opened the door to find Vicki was carrying Elijah. I briefly considered just how many laws of physics vampire speed was breaking.  
  
"Are you doing okay?" I asked.  
  
"It's fine." Vicki threw Elijah's body inside. "So Klaus and his vampires are dead." Vicki shook her head.  
  
"Elena figured out who you are, by the way." I pointed at the brunette. "Want me to compel her to forget?"  
  
"Why bother?" Vicki asked and sat down. "Why _Bonnie_ , anyway?"  
  
"She's strong and it was easy to possess her." I answered.  
  
"It was easy because she trusted you!" Elena shouted.  
  
"It's nothing she wouldn't have done," I explained calmly. "She put Klaus in Tyler's body without Tyler's consent, once. That was when she _was_ in her right mind."  
  
"You can't treat people like this just because they _might_ do things in the future." Elena said.  
  
"Want to know how many people die otherwise?" I asked. "Right now in the old timeline, Damon was just bit by Tyler. Klaus sacrifices Jenna and a werewolf named Jules to empower himself as a Hybrid. Stefan sells himself to Klaus to cure Damon of the werewolf bite. Stefan and Klaus go out on a murderous rampage and hunt for werewolves, killing and torturing along the way. To save your life, your uncle has Bonnie cast a spell to give up his own. Marcel's army is down in New Orleans killing anyone standing in their way. God knows what other castoffs of Klaus's line were getting up to." I glared at Elena.  
  
"Then _stop them." Elena shot back. "If you think you're so much better then us then go and hunt bad vampires, stop Klaus, cure Stefan. You had that power. You didn't have to kill so many innocent people."  
  
"Innocent?"_ Vicki asked. "Hello! Your boyfriends raped me and killed me. You let Damon get away with rape and murder. I've already killed people since I came back. Vampires kill people. Killing vampires saves lives. Duh." Vicki stood next to me.  
  
"Try saying something your creepy ghost boyfriend _didn't_ tell you and I might buy it." Elena snarled.  
  
"You're both right." I said. "Elena, I was a coward when it came to Klaus. The man scared me so much I murdered a whole lot of people just to get him out of the way. Vicki's right, that by killing a ton of innocent people I saved way more." I sat down, exhausted.  
  
"What do you want him to do?" Vicki asked quietly. "I mean, he can't undo what he did." Vicki paused. "Right?"  
  
"As far as I know bringing back an Original would do jack shit to their sire line. Anything but one by one rezzing is out of the question and I don't really know a safe way to work on that unless I get this thing up and running." I pulled the Ascendant out of Bonnie's purse and handed it to Vicki.  
  
"Well this thing is cool." Vicki looked at it. "How does it work?"  
  
"Lauren improvised a spell right before she would have been possessed by an evil witch. She was studying the principles, but she wasn't using the normal rules for the thing. Ancient evil witches have been holding onto it ever since, and god knows what they've been doing to it. I'll talk with Lauren, but I'd really like to talk with the Gemini witches who invented these things."  
  
"You sound like you're overthinking it and making excuses." Vicki sighed. "You know you do that."  
  
"Yes, but if I screw this up I might end up stuck in a looping prison dimension for all eternity. I want to be cautious as _fuck_ about it." I answered.  
  
"You're just going to rush in anyway when something goes wrong. Remember how you weren't going to sleep with Lauren until we got out of the prison dimension?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Okay, I'll talk with Lauren as soon as I can." I conceded.  
  
"What _exactly_ are you planning?" Elena asked.  
  
"Oh god do _not_ start on that again. Please?" Vicki begged. "I can't sit through one more ramble on Esther and Davina using miracle babies while the Other Side was collapsing or expression triangles that killed Bonnie."  
  
"What?" Elena asked.  
  
"The future I saw was _messy_." I offered by way of explanation.  
  
"Yeah." Vicki nodded.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Lauren**  
__  
  
__ I returned to my body and sent a message into the talisman. <You up?>  
  
<We've got Elena, Elijah, Mikael, Bonnie and Rebekah here. Kol is off saving the world. Anything interesting happening on your end?> Jeff asked.  
  
<I kind of pissed off Qetsiyah; but the bitch had it coming.> I said. <What exactly do you remember about the drawback where a team of superpowered vampire hunters come after you?>  
  
<They'd have superhuman strength superior to most vampires, extra lives, maybe age slowly? It's been ages. I think the drawback said they thought killing me would kill Silas. What's wrong?> Jeff asked.  
  
<Apparently Qetsiyah is going to make something like that if Kol doesn't kill Silas really quickly. I suggest you prepare for the worst.>  
  
<Will do. So, how exactly do I use the Ascendant to get us out of here?> Jeff asked.  
  
<I was researching them, but I didn't fully understand them when I cast the spell. You need my blood since I cast the spell, and you need to channel the same thing I used. My coven has a monster in a dungeon that I channeled. If you go to Los Angeles we can figure out the necessary incantation.>  
  
<Okay. That's one problem solved. Now, we've got um, wow. We've got them all. Mikael's got Elena's blood in him. We have Elijah right here. Damon drank Elena's blood, so that counts Finn. I drank it before I let go of Kol's body. Vicki drank it for Rebekah. Klaus is dead. Call Esther to make sure we know what she wants us to do.>  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I held Elena's necklace, which was Esther's talisman, in my hand and chanted. I felt Esther's spirit become aware of me. After a second of thinking hard at each other I jumped to the Other Side while Esther spoke words of power to see through the veil.  
  
"Now is not a good time," Esther said. She gestured at a pile of human bones, a vat of burning oil, and what looked to be a compost pile. "I need to be ready for the moon's apex."  
  
"We won." I told her. "Klaus is dead, and we have a spell we can do on the others."  
  
"Niklaus is dead?" Esther asked.  
  
"Jeff got a cheap shot in. White Oak Stake burned up, but Klaus was doing his absolute hardest to break the curse on him. We have a spell that could link all of the Originals together with doppelganger blood. The question is; do you want us to do that?"  
  
"My old plan in Jeff's visions was to link them together and kill one so I could kill them all. You think you could do that, now?" Esther asked.  
  
"Not instantly. We lost our White Oak Stake, but we have Elijah's body and he had access to a sign of the wood recently. It would at least leave them all vulnerable." I explained.  
  
"Do it." Esther said. "I hoped I could reason with them. There still might even be time for that. Weaken them all you must, but don't kill them yet, please."  
  
"Alright." I shrugged. "Sounds fair."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
**Wyld**  
  
I pulled the dagger out of Elijah and poured Elena's blood down his throat. At the touch of blood the Original's body accelerated its healing before my eyes.  
  
Vicki looked up from Elijah's phone. "Esther texted some instructions. Apparently it will be a couple hours until he fully wakes up, but he'll be conscious by now."  
  
"Alright." I stood up. "Time to do some magic." I felt the moon hit the highest point in the sky and I made a connection to that power. **"** Phasmatos Inta Grum Vin Callus Amalon Callagius Accodum. Cosom Naben Dox Callagius Amalon Gaeda Callagius. Ceremum Descendium Vinum. Phasmatos Inta Grum Callus. Cosom Naben Dox." I recited an incantation. Vicki offered her hand and I slit her wrist, letting Rebekah's blood flow onto a drawing of the Original Family Tree. The blood started dropping on Rebekah's name, and then it flowed upward to Mikael's before running back down to her three surviving brothers.  
  
"Cool." Vicki said, looking at the family tree.  
  
"Phasmatos Tribam, Audi, et Adiuva. Inclusi Moenibus Malum. Adiuva. Ne Alios Liberaret Eversor." I pulled on the moon's power and the boundary of ownership already existing, turning it from a fact into a spell to prevent any access. I dumped the remainder of the water bottle "potion" of mixed blood onto the floor. Once I left this house I would not be able to return.  
  
"Waste of a good carpet," Vicki said.  
  
I gestured for her to shush so I could concentrate. "Lectos espiritox. Donnez moi fortitudo, merkke otimo sekre. Phasmatos sanguine infudare corra!" I pulled on Mikael through my new talisman, and bound Bonnie's life force to the spell that kept the Original Vampire Hunter alive. I spun incantations together to properly bind Mikael's power to Bonnie's blood. I would need all the power I could get so long as I was in Bonnie's body.  
  
With Bonnie enhancement taken care of I looked at Elena. I still had lunar power. Phasmatos sanguine, protegunt umbrae mortis." I improvised. Elena gasped as she felt a connection be forged between her life's and Bonnie's. So long as Bonnie's heart was beating, Elena should be coming back from the dead. I leapt forward, slit the back of Bonnie's hand, and forced some blood into Elena's mouth. Elena gasped as the blood magic bound the spell securely.  
  
"What the hell?" Vicki asked. I felt the pull of the full moon break; the power was no longer available for channeling.  
  
"We need Elena alive. I ensured she wouldn't die." I shrugged. "I do not want to go forward without doppelganger blood."  
  
"What the hell did you do to me?" Elena asked.  
  
"Nothing major. Just a protection spell like the one I did with Finn's body and yours, but now it's tied to Bonnie. The spell for Finn was a one shot deal, but this one should last," I explained.  
  
Vicki laughed. "Don't be so shocked. He just does things when he's stressed."  
  
"Alright." I looked around the room one last time. "Let's go to California. Time to get back my real body." I picked up Elijah's body and put it over my shoulder.  
  
"One second." Elena said. I watched her go to a bookshelf and pull back some books before she emerged with a White Oak Stake and the moonstone binding Klaus's curse.  
  
"Should I even ask?" I looked at Elena.  
  
"You said you would be pulling Jeremy and Jenna back from the dead. This is the leverage we'd built on Klaus and Elijah," Elena explained. "If they stop you I won't be getting anyone back."  
  
"Clever." I nodded at her. I glanced at Vicki. I would have to keep my guard up with Elena coming on this trip. I knew how many men had fallen for the charms of the doppelgangers.  
[hr][/hr]  
**Second Interlude**  
  
Damon Salvatore sat in the bar in Atlanta, Georgia and drank the best bourbon Bree had to offer. Damon studied the witch, mildly regretful she had never wanted him to turn her when she was younger. Even if Bree wanted to be a vampire now she's be stuck with an older face forever.  
  
"Gotta say, I hate the new look," Bree said as she poured Damon more bourbon.  
  
"I'm thinking of dyeing it black at least," Damon admitted.  
  
"Don't you even dare," Damon heard a sultry voice behind him.  
  
"Sage!" He shouted and turned around to give her a friendly hug.  
  
"Damon Salvatore in Finn's body," The redhead nodded. "I never thought I'd meet either of you again like this. How has the century treated my favorite student?"  
  
"Not well." Damon gestured at his new body. "You would not believe the year I've had. Psychics who see the future, crazy witches, cannibal vampires made by mad scientists. Long story short, I was screwed exactly how I thought I'd be and my brother is dead."  
  
Sage nodded and responded. "There is a lot of chaos going around. Lucien fell over dead and I hear Marcel's entire kingdom is gone. The Strix are panicking and witches are dancing in the streets of New Orleans. What do you know about it?"  
  
"I have no idea who any of those people are," Damon shrugged. "This crazy asshole who calls himself 'Jeff' killed Klaus. Turns out that crazy pants mom of the Originals put a curse on her kids so everyone Klaus sired died. Them and all the people they sired, and so on. I'd be dead right now if he hadn't put me in Finn's body."  
  
"If Finn dies, then I die." Sage realized.  
  
"Yep. That's not even hard right now, either." Damon pulled a piece of wood out of his pocket. "It's what made me realize Jeff was screwy. He made such a big deal out of a sign on the road welcoming people to Mystic Falls being wood from the special tree that could kill the Originals. I did some research and it turned out that same wood was used to make an entire bridge. He thought no one would notice."  
  
"White Oak," Sage whispered and looked at it. "How is this possible?"  
  
"He never fully explained it, or maybe I just wasn't listening." Damon shrugged. "Sage, this guy won't stop at Klaus. Even if he would, he killed my brother so I'd kill him anyway. You're going to go and find some vampires who don't want to die so we can go and kill him."  
  
"What is this we?" Sage glared. "I'm not risking Finn."  
  
"Oh right," Damon scowled. "You had the worst taste in men."  
  
"No, I didn't." Sage sat down and downed Damon's drink.  
  
"Nine hundred years, Damon. I hear you can relate." Sage smiled.  
  
"Katherine wasn't even in the tomb." Damon growled. "Are you in or not?"  
  
"I'm in." Sage nodded. Then she snapped Damon's neck. Bree screamed.  
  
"He'll be fine," Sage assured the witch. "I just can't have his body dying before I get Finn back. He's right though. Would you please get me a phone? I have some calls to make."


	17. Chapter 17

**Wyld**  
  
I felt Elijah wake up even as his body was still paralyzed. The last he remembered he was being stabbed. I placed a hand on Elijah's forehead and projected an illusion of the two of us sitting in the minivan, with Elijah healthy and me in my true body.  
  
"I take it things did not go according to plan." Elijah cracked a smile. "I must admit I was feeling overconfident after obtaining the Ascendant."  
  
"It happens to the best of us," I answered. "Perhaps if you had been more careful I wouldn't have needed to release Kol or kill Klaus, but I got what I needed in time."  
  
"Klaus is dead?" Elijah asked softly.  
  
"He was in his full bluster of threatening and blackmail. I was possessing the body of the Bennett Witch. Bonnie was no threat to him when he held the White Oak Stake, but my own telekinetic skill is significantly greater than hers. If he'd left me another option things could have gone differently." I explained.  
  
"Understandable." Elijah nodded, sadly. "What of Rebekah and Finn?"  
  
"Rebekah is still possessed by my ally and Damon took off with Finn's body when I broke his trust. I expect your mother will be freeing your brother as soon as she returns from her crusade against your aunt." I paused. "I have to admit I look forward to no longer being tied to your family politics."  
  
"I have long held that dream myself." Elijah smiled. "Why are you taking me with you?"  
  
"It seemed less likely to lead to complications than leaving you somewhere in Mystic Falls." I explained.  
  
Elijah nodded with understanding. "What of Katerina?"  
  
"She is dead. When Klaus died it triggered a piece of sympathetic magic your mother prepared as an incentive to lesser vampires to keep you alive. Rose was sired by Scary Mary, who was sired by Klaus, so Katerina died with him."  
  
"Oh yes, the unfortunate Mary Porter. One of Klaus's more damning affairs, but I think she did him good while it lasted," Elijah answered. "That suggests most of the vampires in Mystic Falls are now deceased. Perhaps the absolute majority of vampires, truth be told; Klaus could be careless at times."  
  
"I was honestly wondering how many were left. What exactly do you know about vampire demographics? There can't be that many of the race active, given how voracious they can be and how much trouble they have early on." I said.  
  
Elijah looked pleased by the question. "I would guess fewer than a thousand in the United States; possibly a lot fewer. Mikael has been hunting any signs of vampires for the last millennium in the hopes it would give him a clue to Klaus's location. Obviously this time's denial of the supernatural is little more than a religion of its own, but it is one largely enabled by Mikael's hunt." Elijah looked thoughtful. "Tell me if you need any clarification, as the history of the vampires is shrouded in myths, many of them my own invention."  
  
"I will," I smiled.  
  
"Certain groups have engaged in significant recruitment of course. Klaus and Kol made a habit of creating new vampires for a while to obscure their own activities, but both eventually stopped as it raised complications. I sought to balance the harm my brothers were doing by creating a more civilized faction of vampires, but I was forced to leave them due to my father's involvement. Some of the first vampires we created made a habit of recruitment in attempts to gather power, most notably Sage and the Trinity, but anything so messy has left few legacies into the modern era. My Strix, many covens of witches, and Mikael all had reasons to destroy vampires they were aware of. I expect most surviving vampires have made a habit of hiding in lawless regions where life is cheap."  
  
"The Strix?" I asked.  
  
"They are the vampires I created, and their descendants. I recruited the best of humanity in the hopes I could preserve their virtues, but instead of enhancing the best in them I fear I enhanced the worst of their qualities. Despite their many failings I expect they have done much to control the population of vampires," Elijah explained.  
  
"Also, what is the Trinity?" I asked.  
  
Elijah laughed softly. "Ah, yes. Lucian, Aurora and Tristan. Our first experiments with the creation of new vampires. I compelled them to use our names and think they were the Mikaelsons to try and buy some breathing room from my father; their survival is a testament to their resourcefulness and skill."  
  
"Huh." I answered. "That story says a lot, really."  
  
"I would hazard to guess that perhaps a hundred or fewer vampires are free roaming and undisciplined creatures such as the Salvatore Brothers. People such as Damon and Stefan are simply too volatile for there to be many hidden in a culture as placid as this one. More organized groups that are better at hiding their kills could likely reach very large populations if properly controlled, and it is difficult to determine how many such groups could have emerged from various sources. I could always discover that some wayward vampire managed to establish a cult in India that has grown into the thousands. I am fairly certain that the vampire population is nowhere near the theoretical maximum where it could remain hidden from humanity as I have rarely even seen the hint of competition for territory that such groups would imply." Elijah looked a bit tired, even in the dream we were in.  
  
"That makes sense," I answered. "Thank you for the help." I broke the connection and looked out the window.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat in the Mystic Grill and eyed the Travelers who were guarding Markos. "You say you have what we need?" Markos asked with a look of hunger.  
  
"Here," I said, and pulled out a talisman. "I made it from White Oak, which is one of Nature's eternal objects, which stabilizes the elements that conflict to open the portal." I began to explain the process of creation to ensure there would be no question of this being a trick. "To cast the spell I used power from Qetsiyah's spells and wrote the symbols on the talisman with my own blood; my power created this world so mine allows the passage to it. You can see a Labradorite crystal, that allows you to channel your own power to activate the device. The bone comes from a man who died in transition from human to vampire, a creature of both flesh and spirit which lets you touch the Other Side. This is the replacement you need for Jeff's body." I handed it to Markos, who held it gently.  
  
"I can feel this has power," Markos mused. "Not as powerful as the immortal, but it would be surprising if it was." Markos closed his eyes and began to chant. After chanting for a minute the crystal at the center of the talisman began to glow. In a red shadow cast by the blood I had put on the Labradorite a tall man with a look of wonder on his face became visible.  
  
"It works," Markos marveled.  
  
Did you doubt _me_?" I asked.  
  
Markos laughed softly. "This is magnificent. I admit readily that I should have trusted the immortal when he sought to make a deal with us. Witches had feuded with us for centuries before I was born, so the idea the offer was in good faith never entered my calculations."  
  
"You spared me because I was of use to you. Don't act like we are friends, now." I frowned. "Give me Jeff and Vicki so I can prepare to leave."  
  
"Thank you, Lauren." Markos gestured and two of his people chanted, dropping a cloaking spell that had rendered two coffins invisible. "The Travelers owe you a great debt. With pure magic we can make this world into a paradise. If you need a favor, ask me and I shall do my best to repay this. As far as I am concerned my people's feud with witches has ended now that we have a land free from the curse."  
  
"Cut the crap, Markos." I snapped. "I didn't make this world for you and you didn't get it because we worked together." I waved my hand and the coffins broke open. Vicki's desiccated body looked horrible while Jeff's face appeared to have turned into a stone statue with a grim expression. "If we didn't share an enemy in the Thirteen I would do my best to never see you again."  
  
"Your temper has grown since your lover left," Markos remarked.  
  
"If you didn't make a habit of stealing my friends I might not have a habit of getting angry at you," I almost spat.  
  
"They weren't even using their bodies," Markos sighed.  
  
"Just give me a phone number to call if I need to contact your living agents and we'll be done here," I said.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I stalked Jeff as I projected my spirit to the Other Side. Jeff was napping in Bonnie's body as the moderately compelled Elena drove west. Vicki was in front, reading a gossip magazine and listening to heavy metal while she pointedly ignored Elena. Elijah looked out the window, apparently in a thoughtful mood.  
  
I returned to my body and then projected myself into Jeff's dreams. Jeff's spirit mingled with Bonnie's, and he was having a nightmare about a confused mess of their mothers. I put my hand on Jeff's shoulder and he shook into a lucid dream.  
  
"We're close," Jeff said.  
  
"We are," I nodded.  
  
"Even before I got this body I remember that when I felt anticipation I'd sometimes get a coppery taste in my mouth. I had nosebleeds a lot; so I knew the taste well. That's stronger now, with all the blood I've tasted," Jeff explained. "It was almost unbearable in my body or Kol's, but it is softer in Bonnie's. I missed being human."  
  
"Your immortal body is human enough," I smiled.  
  
"Oh, it is a trade up." Jeff smiled sadly. "My hosts have all been better than what I was. Even Bonnie is strong and healthy, a cheerleader and a dancer. I was always sick before I came here."  
  
"Jeff," I paused. "You say your immortal body is a host. You access his memories, but you don't think they're your real identity."  
  
"I'm sure I ate some of him, but yeah," Jeff admitted. "I took his name, too. It felt natural." Jeff paused. "I wonder if I'd awakened in Bonnie's body first, if Bonnie would have felt just as right."  
  
"Do you think there's someone alive in your new body, at least someone you could bring back?" I asked.  
  
"No," Jeff said. "Maybe it's just what it would mean if it is true, but I don't think there's any Jeff that's not in me. Sometimes I think he's just a shadow made by the jumpchain, or that we are the same person living different lives." Jeff trailed off. "No, I can't miss Jeff's parents. I miss mine, though."  
  
"What were they like?" I asked.  
  
"My mom and dad met in the army, actually. Military intelligence. The two of them learned German and Russian when we were listening in on them in the Cold War. My parents were old when they had me, they'd been out of the army for a long time. My mother wanted a child really badly, and I was this fragile, sickly thing that almost died right before I was born. She homeschooled me, ran my Boy Scouts, did everything she could to give me a chance." Jeff sighed. "I try not to think about it, because I know that if she just found me gone, or dead, she'd never be the same."  
  
"Do you think she'd like me?" I asked, just a bit plaintive.  
  
"You know, I always thought that if I had a girlfriend my mom'd hate her no matter who it was," Jeff laughed. "Just always had it as a gut feeling. I doubt she'd say anything, though."  
  
I laughed at that. "I'm sure we'd get along fine."  
  
"The jumpchain rules say the world is frozen while I'm gone. No time passes. When the jumping is done you go home and start your life again with everything you gained," Jeff said. "I hope that's what happened with me. I wish there was a way to know for sure."  
  
"Is that what you want to work on, once we're safe?" I asked.  
  
"Let's see; the Coven of the Thirteen are still active, Qetsiyah's about to unleash an army of superpowered psychos on us, and the Mikaelsons are only down one member. I don't think we'll have much room to breathe for a while." Jeff shrugged. "I don't know where to begin figuring out what happened to me, either. When people write stories about jumping, they usually meet a patron who asks them if they want to go on an adventure for the amusement of some kind of god. I got bit in the neck by a monster that seemed to be confused and dropped into a new dimension herself. Sometimes I think she did something to me, and sometimes I think we were both swept up in some kind of storm rippling through reality."  
  
"Huh." I paused. "You got bit in the neck?"  
  
"I felt the bite marks close when I arrived," Jeff answered.  
  
"Whoa." I touched Jeff's dream of a neck. "How could you be in a host body if you still had marks from your old one closing when you arrived?"  
  
"Huh." Jeff looked thoughtful. "I guess we can investigate my host's life, see if it looks like someone might've faked it, but it's hard to see what that could tell us. There are people to look up, the actors and writers who worked on The Vampire Diaries in my world and who live here. I've never thought that would work, though."  
  
"I lived in L.A." I pointed out. "You can see celebrities at the grocery store where I grew up.  
  
At that point Jeff jerked awake as Elijah and Vicki started screaming.  
  
**Jeff**  
  
I sat in a Four Seasons and examined Elijah's hand. Elijah sat cross-legged on the bed in a circle of lavender flowers I had bought at Home Depot just before we came here. Lavender was not optimal for divination, but it was helpful.  
  
The cut I had made in Elijah's hand a minute ago was still not healing.  
  
"Is this somehow our fault?" Vicki asked cheerfully, kicking Rebekah's long legs.  
  
"I think only partially," I explained. "I believe the core problem is that Kol Mikaelson appears to have taken the Cure for Immortality."  
  
"The treasure the Five were hunting?" Elijah asked with some surprise. "I had not realized it worked sympathetically. No wonder they sought it so desperately."  
  
"Ordinarily it would not be working on anyone but Kol. However, I cast a spell to link all of you together. Apparently this link transmits the effects of the Cure to some degree," I explained.  
  
"You linked us?" Elijah frowned. "Why?"  
  
"If I needed to kill one Original that meant I could kill all of you at once. Your mother's idea," I half-lied. The _spell_ was her idea, not the idea of using it in this situation.  
  
"I'm..." Elijah choked for a second. "...we're _human_?"  
  
"I don't think so," I explained. "I am still drawing power from Mikael. What I suspect is happening is that the link is directly sustaining an effect that I'll call 'humanizing' but only Kol is actually _cured_."  
  
"Why on Earth would Kol have taken such a thing?" Elijah asked, frowning and looking suspicious.  
  
"Vampires can't be witches," I pointed out. "You know he missed practicing magic. Also, perhaps the centuries of blood lust, the fact that his family would lock him in a box for centuries at a time, and the looming possibility Silas would end the world entered into his calculations. This is assuming he _meant_ to take the Cure, which is honestly not certain given Silas is a psychic and the island is full of Travelers."  
  
"If it was intentional it was immensely foolish." Elijah looked at his hand with a mildly disgusted expression.  
  
"Agreed," Vicki said. "I hated being dead. Making sure he'd die is just retarded."  
  
"Well, his mom's the one who invented the vampirism spell. Now he's a witch with a thousand years of magical knowledge under his belt, give or take how long he slept with a dagger in his heart. He might have his own plan," I suggested.  
  
"If he has gained access to witchcraft he might still be one of the most powerful beings alive," Elijah nodded in agreement. "It makes me somewhat regretful I never sought out mystical knowledge to his degree."  
  
"Didn't you practice when you were alive?" Vicki asked. "If my mom was a witch I'd want to be one."  
  
Elijah smiled sadly. "If your mother was the Original Witch you may have grown up with another perspective. Mother was always fearful that we could be consumed by dark magic of the kind that destroyed her parents. Kol fought and suffered for every scrap of power Mother let him have. Rebekah fought twice as hard and had nothing to show for it; Kol claims she lacked the knack for it while Rebekah insisted that Mother sabatogued her more."  
  
"Sounds just like her," I commented.  
  
"Do _not_ insult my mother." Elijah glared at me.  
  
"You know she cast spells on Klaus to weaken him as a child, right?" I asked.  
  
Elijah looked uncomfortable. "Did she tell you this?"  
  
"She knew he was a werewolf, or could be, so she lived in fear he'd kill someone and break her marriage when Mikael found out. Klaus lived in sickness because of that. I totally buy that she'd suppress Rebekah's magic if she felt she had a reason," I elaborated.  
  
"How the hell does a witch live in fear of a normal dude?" Vicki asked. "Like, can't she blow his head off by glaring really hard?"  
  
"It was never that simple," Elijah said softly. "Esther is not like the Bennett Witch your friend is possessing. My mother's power ebbed and flowed with what Nature gave her to channel. Even when she was strong, she could die like anyone else if she was caught unprepared. If she was ready she could always have calmed him with herbs and spells before slitting his throat, but could you do that to someone you love if you had any other choice? Could she do that to the man who looked at an orphaned freak from another village and saw a woman he would give up everything to be with?"  
  
"Oh," I said quietly.  
  
"My parents harmed us in ways none of us have healed in a thousand years, but do not think they were weak or simple." Elijah looked at Vicki intently. "See." He raised his hand and touched Vicki's forehead, then laughed. "Oh, yes, if I am not a vampire I can't show you my memories, can I?"  
  
"I think I'll take your word for it," Vicki answered.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat on the Prison World's replica of the coffin Klaus had held Kol in while the dagger had subdued him. On the coffin lid in front of me I placed Kol's daylight ring. Ransacking the coffin I had found it in a weird, vibrating state similar to how Jeff had described Alaric's ring, but it was easy enough to pluck out of the air.  
  
I had moved the coffin into the underground tunnels of Mystic Falls where human natives had once used as a defense against werewolves when they turned on the full moon. On the walls, the Originals had written their names into the rock with knives in the days they were still mortal.  
  
I placed a half circle of candles around the wall with the Mikaelson names with Jeff and the coffin on the inside. I lit the candled with a spell and began to channel the fire to purify the area of random influences. Next I whispered an incantation I had written in English. Using your own incantations was always risky; knowing that you had wrote a spell made it more vulnerable to your own desires and mental state, especially if it was in your native tongue. I had felt this was the best option for a complex and new spell, though.  
  
" _Spirits, help me reach Kol, son of Esther; Kol, ancient witch; Kol, Original Vampire."_ I heard the wind whip around me as the candle flame blazed high into the air. I channeled the personal object, the coffin and the location and expanded my connection to Kol through the body of the spirit that had possessed him.  
  
In the circle of flames I saw Kol's surprised face appear. Kol was a handsome Mikaelson despite the shock on his face, and his eyes met mine immediately.  
  
"Hello, Darling. I take it you are going to a lot of trouble to contact me." Kol said. The apparently young man reached out his hand experimentally and put it over the wall. "You could only summon my spirit, not my body. There have to be easier ways to contact me, unless..." Kol walked to the candle line. "...you are stuck somewhere, aren't you? You could have tried to contact me in my dreams, but you must know I would be stronger in my own head. That means you don't trust me. So you know my reputation, but are not some kind of follower of mine. Am I right so far?"  
  
"Clever." I nodded at Kol. "I heard you took the Cure for Immortality meant to destroy Silas?"  
  
"He tricked me, Love." Kol smiled sheepishly. "It seems Silas can cast illusions on vampires without us realizing what they are. Long story." Kol gave me a wary look. "If you know about Silas, either I missed some of his followers or we're on the same team and want him gone."  
  
"Honestly I'm pretty neutral on the issue." I shrugged. "I'm against Silas unleashing hell on Earth, but I am pretty sure he won't care about it either pretty soon."  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Kol asked.  
  
"You know the story; Qetsiyah killed Silas's true love and hoped Silas would take the Cure in grief to die. Silas realized Qetsiyah had set a trap to keep them both in an afterlife she made. Silas wants to either bring down the veil to the Other Side, allowing him to move on to different afterlives while travel from the Other Side to the land of the living becomes trivial, or destroy it entirely so he can fall to where his soulmate rests, right?" I asked.  
  
"Duh." Kol rolled his eyes. "Are you going to tell me how Silas betrayed Qetsiyah next or are you going to go right to the bottom of the barrel and start explaining how the Mikaelsons burned down the White Oak even though I was there for that one?"  
  
"That story is missing a crucial detail," I explained. "Qetsiyah's a bitch. Silas's girlfriend took the same potion he did, and she's still alive. Kind of. Turned to stone like Silas was, cursed to anchor the Other Side and feel the pain of every dying creature who gets trapped by Qetsiyah's spell, but she'd look imminently salvageable to Silas. Want to stop Silas from moving heaven and earth to be with Amara, just tell him they're still in the same dimension if he hasn't been cured himself."  
  
"Damn." Kol laughed. "Qetsiyah's pretty twisted, isn't she?" Then Kol paused. "Given you know all of this, I have to wonder if you're Qetsiyah and are telling me this as part of a lead in to why we have to work together."  
  
I shook my head and smiled. "Nah. I just know a lot thanks to a friend who had visions of far too much to go into detail. I'm calling you here because we're both major players in the current crisis and we need to make sure we're cooperating, or at least competing fairly instead of making this mess even bigger."  
  
"That makes sense." Kol nodded. "So I'm guessing you heard I took what turned out to be the only dose of the Cure, and you called me to learn why?"  
  
"Well, whether or not you were tricked I know why you'd do it. You spent a thousand years researching witchcraft and making deals to try and gain an advantage over Klaus. Now that you're a witch you can put him in his place, right?" I asked.  
  
"Not just Klaus." Kol's smile was dark. "Spend a thousand years dealing with Elijah and on the run from our Dad and you'd want a change of pace, too."  
  
"Did Silas feed on you?" I asked.  
  
"Right before I took the Cure," Kol admitted readily. "He was frozen in place with his hands wrapped around the Cure, so he needed blood for me to move his hands. It's not like I hadn't bit my wrist before to share a little blood. I thought I'd shoved one of the pile of little red pills down his throat and popped another after I threw his heart across the room. It was all merely an illusion, or enough of it was the next thing I knew I was waking up with a killer headache and Silas was gone."  
  
"Ah," I nodded. "Any wounds from after that for blood sucking?"  
  
"No, but why do you ask?" Kol frowned.  
  
"You take the Cure, your blood can be drained to fuel someone else being cured of their immortality or something like that. Prepare yourself so any compulsion Silas put into your head is absolutely neutralized unless you want him using your blood after he feels ready to escape the mortal coil," I explained.  
  
"Huh." Kol nodded. "Will do."  
  
"So next order of business, what are you going to do next?" I asked.  
  
"I was going to head to New Orleans to pickup some property of mine to help stop Silas. After that I was going to prepare for my triumphant return to the family; wrapped in protection spells to keep Klaus from throwing a fit. I was thinking then I'd see about undoing Mikael's immortality so I could present my brothers with his head." Kol looked wistful.  
  
"What's your beef with Mikael?" I asked.  
  
"You think he only tortured Klaus growing up?" Kol asked with disgust. "Do you think he had any love for a son so weak he resorted to his mother's 'magic tricks?' To think he calls Klaus the bastard." Kol spit on the ground.  
  
"Ah." I nodded. "Well, that's honestly not a problem for me. Quick note though, Klaus is dead."  
  
Kol froze. "What?"  
  
"He threatened the wrong person at the wrong time," I kept the story vague.  
  
"The sire line," Kol whispered. "It would've gone off like a bomb. I hope it didn't touch anyone you care about."  
  
"Not really," I shrugged. "Made another mess, but nothing I am too worried about."  
  
"Klaus will linger on the Other Side. He'll be pissed, but he's not in any danger unless..." Kol frowned again. "Ah, that puts stopping Silas back to the top of the list."  
  
"I see." I nodded. "Would you consider an alliance on that issue? I can help you find him. I'm the one who opened his prison, though I didn't expect anyone to be dumb enough to walk in and try and get him out of it."  
  
"Interesting." Kol answered. "Give me your name and I will be asking you for help when I am ready."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"So," Vicki eyed the wall of cork board and string and pins detailing the situation. "We've gotta kill the Mikaelsons, right?"  
  
"Yeah," I agreed. "It's just a question of timing."  
  
"So the Original Mom is off messing with the Original Aunt," Vicki traced one side of the board with her fingers. "Original Aunt is holding the kid Esther Rumpelstiltskin'd," She read details off index cards I had written. "Finn's soul was apparently bolting from Esther after she tied it into a warlock? Then we've got Finn's body possessed by Damon..." Vicki followed a line of string down. "Elijah's working for Esther, so he'll probably be on a plane to Norway to work on that bullshit soon. Klaus is dead for now." Vicki went down further. "Kol is de-vampiring all the other Originals. Jeff says Rebekah's body doesn't have its spirit inside of it and he said Esther is probably using it. Oh." Vicki brought her fingers back up to the top of the board and moved inward. "Mikael's locked in a basement and it's really useful there."  
  
"That's all of them we know of, right?" I asked.  
  
"Didn't one of them get killed by werewolves before they turned into vampires?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Well yes," I nodded. "The youngest. He must've moved on from the Other Side."  
  
"Um..." Vicki frowned. "Are we actually buying that Esther let one of her kids stay dead? Esther, the woman who Jeff says would have put her entire family into the bodies of random witches after a thousand years of being vampires?"  
  
"If the soul moved on then..." I frowned. "If the youngest never did a spell then he'd probably have slipped right through Qetsiyah's net on the Other Side, especially if he didn't take death by werewolf personally."  
  
"Lauren?" Vicki looked at me like I was an idiot. "Elijah has done nothing but talk about his dysfunctional family life since he woke up. Esther's big sister found an _entirely separate_ way to stick around that has nothing to do with what Esther did to make vampires. No Mikaelson is going to just get up and move on, right?"  
  
"Huh." I put my hand beneath Rebekah's index card. "Yeah. I mean, Esther has been dead for a thousand years, so it's not like she could have done anything about it."  
  
"She's been witch-dead, which means you're still a witch, just in a dimension with nothing to do but watch her children fuck up. That kid's somewhere." Vicki argued.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Wyld**  
  
I looked at a street map of Los Angeles suburbs on a library computer. Rebekah's body was asleep next to me as Vicki's spirit returned to the Prison World to help Lauren prepare for the breakout.  
  
The Coven of the Thirteen had witnessed Lauren creating the Prison World and had used the Ascendant; that meant they'd been using the power source I needed to open the gate. According to Lauren, there would be a matching Ascendant somewhere in the Prison World, and using the one on Earth would let us teleport to the one in the created universe. We thought that Lauren must have been knocked off course from teleporting to her Ascendant by my arrival, but that was only a guess.  
  
The Thirteen would have hidden the Prison-Side Ascendant somewhere when they invaded, but we were fairly sure none of them were still active in the Prison World after the last brawl or else Lauren would have had to deal with their shit again before now. "Fairly sure" was not the confidence level I wanted when dealing with a batch of immortal body snatching witches who wanted to kill my girlfriend, which meant I wanted to be as prepared as possible for upcoming problems.  
  
I heard Elijah approach, even though I had failed to channel Mikael's specific vampire powers since Kol had taken the cure I had gotten used to listening carefully with my new bodies. Elijah pulled out a chair and sat down.  
  
"You were on the phone for a while," I observed.  
  
"Mother has indeed put Rebekah into a new body. She had a lot of questions. It seems that your friend's possessing Rebekah's true body is not going over well with my sister." Elijah looked amused.  
  
"I assume we are parting ways for now?" I asked.  
  
"Mother wants me to track down Finn and Damon. According to divination, they are actually working together, now. I do wish you had found a more reliable partner for Finn's body." Elijah frowned slightly.  
  
"What does she expect you to do?" I asked. "You were never trained as a witch and you aren't an Original anymore."  
  
"Ah." Elijah pulled a ring out of his pocket, his Daylight Ring. "She told me you might be able to help with my current state. She may eventually be able to block the connection that is keeping me mortal, but as long as I am 'cured' she wants to take advantage of the fact I am a latent witch."  
  
"Latent?" I asked.  
  
"As Kol explained it to me, he and Esther required spells of awakening to fully manifest their power. This varies across covens; the Bennetts tend to manifest their powers naturally as teenagers, while some witches display signs of power in infancy. Kol claimed he tapped into his abilities by way of dark magic that nearly killed him. Mother sent me an image she said would help." Elijah pulled out his phone and showed me a texted photograph of a page from Esther's grimoire.  
  
"Huh." I looked at it. Unlike the other spells I had seen in the grimoire, this one was clearly newly made. I looked at diagrams, symbols for a personal object, a burning desire, and the blood of a witch.  
  
"She said it should be quick and simple for you; I see no reason to doubt her," Elijah looked cheerful.  
  
"It would consume a lot of power, but I have a lot of power unless drawing on Mikael kills him," I observed. Then I made a decision "But actually no, I can't do this."  
  
"Of course you can," Elijah frowned. "My mother gave you her children. You owe us a chance at survival."  
  
I closed my eyes for a moment to steady myself. "I'm sorry, Elijah. I know you too well to help you with this. There's always a reason to do something crappy. Family, love, stopping someone you've convinced yourself is a bigger evil."  
  
"You're one to talk. What would Bonnie Bennett think of your sudden pang of conscience?" Elijah asked. I felt his glare as if it was drilling holes into my neck.  
  
"And what of your Trinity, the vampires you compelled to serve as decoys for your father. I didn't even know about that until today. You have been killing and torturing for a thousand years; how long until you decide the to raise Klaus back even if it rips a hole into the Other Side for some monster to walk through, or feel so in need of power to start sacrificing the innocent?"  
  
"My mother asked you for help. Trust her if you can't trust me." Elijah asked.  
  
"Did your mother even tell you what she is _doing_ in Norway?" I countered. "I've seen the future and know a good chunk of your past. Esther sold her daughter to Dahlia, and she sold _your_ firstborn, and Rebekah's, and anyone else in your family. Then she lied about it to everyone and sterilized the survivors to hide the sin. If I hadn't shown up she'd have made it her life's mission to drag Klaus's daughter into the Ancestral Plane to keep her from Dahlia." I ranted a bit.  
  
Elijah's mouth was open. "What?"  
  
"Okay, I may not have told you as much as I thought I did about the future," I admitted.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Elena sat with me as I muttered my side of the spell over Rebekah's body. I heard a gasp as Vicki's spirit rose back into it.  
  
"How's Lauren?" I asked.  
  
"Clearly needs to get laid," Vicki answered.  
  
"I guess that's my department," I answered cheerfully.  
  
"Where's Elijah?" Vicki asked.  
  
"I did one of my oversharing rants when I got nervous at a request to help grant him power, so he's flying to New Orleans to meet with Kol and Rebekah to discuss things I probably shouldn't have admitted," I shrugged.  
  
"Does Klaus really have a child?" Elena asked, looking a bit worried.  
  
"That kind of confused me as well," I admitted. "Break the Hybrid Curse, apparently being a werewolf heals whatever Esther put in her spell to keep her children from reproducing. I might be wrong on the mechanics, but Klaus was as surprised as anyone when a coven of witches started threatening his one night stand and doing spells to confirm paternity."  
  
"Ew." Elena shook her head.  
  
"Oh!" Vicki got to her feet. "Um, Elena, give me your jacket.  
  
"Do I have a choice?" Elena asked as she took it off and handed it to Vicki.  
  
"Okay, we've got a link." Vicki announced. "Lauren was really specific about preparing the jacket. She could get it in Mystic Falls, and we have it here, and even I can see why that helps tie two ends of a spell. You can channel Mikael for power, right?"  
  
"He hasn't died yet," I answered and I pulled out Emily's talisman.  <We're ready, Lauren.>  
  
I felt Lauren draw on me, and I drew on Mikael, and the hotel room began to shake. Elena's jacket began to smoke, and then a small explosion of fire burned a hole in it. In the center of the hole was a vial of blood.  
  
"You owe me a jacket," Elena commented.  
  
"We're in California, you won't need one," I insisted. I picked up the hot glass vial. "Lauren's?"  
  
Vicki pulled out the cork, dipped in her finger, and licked her finger clean. "Definitely Lauren."  
  
"So we have Lauren's blood and her Ascendant. Ready to meet the demon she drew on for power when she made the Prison World?" I asked.  
  
"Um, okay." Elena answered.  
  
"So..." I paused. "Vicki is coming through to return to her real body. Can you watch Lauren's demon while we're gone?"  
  
"This is a bad idea, right?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Hm..." I looked over Elena. " **Tell me what you expect to do if you guard the the creature."**  
  
"I will do my best to protect it so long as Bonnie is trapped in your Prison World and I think you will bring back Stefan. If I see a chance to trap you without losing my friends I will do it." Elena answered. "Also I have no idea what you think I could do if anyone tried to steal it from me."  
  
"Well that settles one question." I smiled. "Fortunately, Elena's not the only agent I on this side." Vicki and Elena looked up. I pulled out my phone and called Atticus Shane.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I looked with some pride at the police van I had designed into a mobile base of operations. Wherever Jeff popped up I could start driving immediately. In one corner were the coffins for Jeff and Vicki's bodies. Jeff's refilling blood cooler and my refilling cabinet of random witch equipment were tied to the coffins. my e-reader grimoire and a set of laptops filled one end of the room on top of a desk I had bolted to the floor. On the walls were a map of the United States full of pins to denote important places, the cork board map of the Mikaelson family tree, and another board of notes and a comparatively empty pair of boards I'd made to keep track of what I knew about the Coven of the Thirteen and the mystery of Jeff's jumpchain scenario.  
  
I had a lot of free time without Jeff and Vicki or a Traveler game plan to resist the invasion of the enemy coven. I was hoping I could just drive the van into the real world. I stepped out of the van. Jonas Martin was closing the door tothe u-haul attached to my mobile command center that he had just filled with his grimoire collection.  
  
"Hey," I greeted him.  
  
"I can't believe it," Jonas whispered.  
  
"I'll take that as colloquial surprise, not an accusation I tricked you?" I asked.  
  
"I checked, she's definitely fine." Jonas smiled a bit sadly. "Greta and Luka have met up and are heading back home to New Orleans."  
  
"Huh. Tell them to reconsider that; Kol's making his way down there as well," I explained.  
  
"I don't think it matters. There are a lot of witches in New Orleans." Jonas still looked distracted. "I think I can move on, now."  
  
"Move on?" I asked. "You mean, find peace?"  
  
"My wife did it," Jonas told me. "I want to see her again. If my children can take care of themselves and aren't in any danger from Klaus I should go and join her." Jonas patted the door. "I know my life's work is in the hands of someone who will use it well."  
  
"Will it be that easy for you?" I asked seriously. "I mean, you have living children to watch over."  
  
"I don't have anyone left to hate on Earth," Jonas told me. "Katherine and Klaus are stuck on the Other Side. My children don't need a dead man controlling their lives."  
  
"Do you think I should try and contact my own parents? Tell them I'm okay?" I asked.  
  
"They'll know," Jonas smiled at me. "I am sure they are proud of you. They'll want to see you living your life, not going mad trying to save them."  
  
"Is that religion or experience talking?" I asked.  
  
"Both," Jonas answered.  
  
"They can still watch over you if they find peace, you just can't talk to them with a spell. That part isn't religion, either." I heard the voice of a stranger behind me and turned around. A pretty black woman walked towards Jonas, who was looking shocked. "It's time to go home, J," She whispered, and the two vanished.  
  
"Sleep well," I said to the air. I felt Emily's talisman flare around my neck.  
  
<Lauren, we're through.> Jeff's telepathic thought speak told me. <Same basement on both ends.>

<Normally there's an anchor on each side, but I was in a rush so the Ascendant should travel with you.> I answered and got into the truck. I had a long way to drive. <Anything else I need to know?>  
  
<I pulled the husband of a dead witch, that guy named Atticus Shane, into this. He and Elena are watching the exit point.>  
  
<Two ordinary humans. Oh what will Silas do if he decides to take it?> I asked.  
  
<It's not exactly a hard target, but I read Elijah's mind before he left so he's not planning on screwing us over. I also did a boundary spell on the creepy basement.> Jeff answered. <No one is entering for a week or so.> Jeff answered. <I'm not sure we could do anything better without waiting for an appropriate celestial cycle or trying to bribe an army to guard it, and both of those have their own risks.>  
  
<That's fair. So, back to Los Angeles...> I drove onward. 

 


	18. Chapter 18

Wyld

Vicki watched from a table as I made circles and symbols out of a pile of herbs and salt.  
  
"Okay, I'm trying to get the hang of this; so the salt is to help channel power from deep within the ground, right? It's pure and lets you kind of put other parts of the spell on top of it because it's strong and solid. The herbs are for like, the details, right? Sage can be used to stop people from hearing you and stuff like that. But why the symbols?"  
  
"Okay, you're not that far off. So let's stick with the part you got closest, the idea that you use salt because it is steady enough to use like..." I looked around the room. "...a table and put things top of it." I gestured at the table Vicki was sitting on. "Most witches call that a binding agent, and there are a lot of binding agents out there. Witch blood is common, but not all witches have blood that is good for that. For the symbols, think about the table metaphor. When you are making a table, you can do it a lot of ways. You might make a circular table with one big stand as a base, or you might do a three legged stool, or give it four legs and make it a square; none of those are wrong, but depending on what you're doing you might prefer one or the other, and you need to make a choice about it even if all of them are equally good."  
  
"Okay." Vicki nodded.  
  
"So the symbols are like the legs of the table. These symbols could be different, but I needed them to be _something_. Mostly you want symbols that are easy for you to remember, to help keep your place in a ritual. When you do an incantation, think of it like you put a plate on the floor and then put something on it. Not exactly a table, but if you don't want food to get dirty by touching the floor it might work just fine. Technically an incantation is kind of like that, and usually involves channeling the air around you."  
  
"So how does it work when you just glare at something and it happens?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Well, if it keeps something off the ground, you can use your hands. Sometimes carrying something by hand is just faster and easier, and even if it's sticky or really hot you can take it, but if you have a minute you can get a glove or a napkin or something. So when I say a word like _Motus_ or _Vodus_ it is like grabbing something with a napkin, while when I just glare or flick my hand it's like I just didn't bother to grab a napkin. Keeping up with the metaphor, a lot of things are just too heavy to grab like that, or too hot or slippery or sharp." I explained. "The gestures, usually that's just instinctive. If you want to burn something it feels natural to point at it even if you could do it without pointing. It's like how people make gestures when they talk."  
  
"Thanks." Vicki nodded.  
  
"What's with the interest in the nerd shit all of a sudden?" I asked.  
  
"Rebekah could be a witch," Vicki said. "Now that she's human, at least. I don't know if I want that, but I have to think about it while I'm still here."  
  
"Ah. Well, I could probably help you activate Rebekah's magic unless her mom did something really tricky to bind her power, but I assume you want your normal body again, right?" I asked.  
  
"I miss being a vampire," Vicki admitted readily. "Being a witch looks cool, but I get the feeling even if I stuck with Rebekah's body it'd be nothing like the rock star stuff you're pulling out."  
  
"Well, Rebekah's the daughter of Esther so her body might hold surprising strength, but unless you _really_ want to start practicing magic as soon as possible then I wouldn't try anything. Even if you wanted to be a witch eventually, I'd look into seeing if we could steal a body from a Siphoner Vampire or something instead of trying to pilot a Mikaelson," I answered.  
  
"Lauren seemed to think it's be a downgrade to her witchiness." Vicki pointed out.  
  
"Lauren thought _her_ becoming a Siphoner vampire would be a downgrade to _her_ witchiness. Well, imagine you're a famous runner. You see on the news that an amputee is breaking records with new robot legs that look like springs. You don't get your legs cut off. Even if there's advantages, you'd be losing your legs. If you are an amputee anyway, it's a very different story," I answered.  
  
"Creepy metaphor, but I get it." Vicki smiled. "I've got no magic, so I don't have anything to lose being a Siphoner Vampire. Lauren would lose whatever she can gain from channeling, even if it'd shake out to being an upgrade overall."  
  
"Yeah," I nodded. "Hence I went with the closest replacement I could at the time for my true body. Thank you, Bonnie Bennett." I pointed at 'my' head.  
  
"The fact that you consider a tiny cute black girl to be the most logical choice for your body snatch still kind of freaks me out," Vicki admitted.  
  
"Small cute black girl with a ton of innate mystical power from the bloodline of Qetsiyah," I pointed out. "Besides, she's a cheerleader and my original body was crappy so she'd probably have beaten me in a fair fight."  
  
"Wow." Vicki shook her head. "And here I was thinking it was a weird sex thing."  
  
"I'm not saying Bonnie's not smokin' or anything." I laughed. "So was Kol, though. I've been really lucky so far if I have to body snatch, but nothing compares to the body the jumpchain gave me. The perk is called _True Immortal_ after all."  
  
"Not a bad body," Vicki looked thoughtful and a bit sad. "I think you were growing muscles while I wasn't paying attention."  
  
"It'd make sense if I was, though I was kind of distracted myself. Magical prison dimension, sexy vampire ghost, possible tumblr soulbond mechanics, and that was before six months of Traveler coma..." I trailed off.  
  
"What the hell is a tumblr?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Um, I knew I saw them when searching the internet, so I don't think that's in the future? It's like, um, anonymous facebook for special interests. Easy blogging for your fanfic, or favorite celebrity, or massive incest fetish. Um, soul bonding is where people either write fictional stories about or believe in real life that they there is a mystical force involving true love, rather than soulmate being a term for people who happen to connect with instant and powerful chemistry." I rambled.  
  
"Ah." Vicki sighed. "So which of those is Lauren?"  
  
"Huh." I frowned. "We're very much ourselves. I think for me, and for her, a soulmate meant that even in this strange new world full of danger and terror we had someone we could trust. For say, Elena Gilbert a soulmate would've been someone who challenged her and tested her, made her struggle to be her best self in the way she thinks Stefan and Damon do."  
  
"What happens when we all get out?" Vicki asked quietly. "To us, I mean."  
  
"Well we're not going to dump you off in San Fransisco with fifty bucks and a hunting knife." I assured her. "If you need to bail on us for Matt or your mom well, that's what you have to do, but as far as I'm concerned you're part of whatever family I am going to build with Lauren."  
  
"Have you discussed this at _all_ with your girlfriend?" Vicki's voice was starting to fume.  
  
"Um, you were with her when I was basically dead. Did she say you had to go when we had a path to send you back to life?" I asked.  
  
"You think your blonde super star mutant is is going to just..." Vicki got off the table.  
  
"Okay, I know nothing of the emotional needs of girls, but I don't _think_ she wants to get rid of her best friend for being um, there?" I frowned.  
  
"Fuck off." Vicki walked out the door.  
  
"This could be a problem," I said to myself.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"Hello, unknown number?" I said into Bonnie's cellphone.  
  
"Telepathy gives me a headache," Lauren explained. "I mean, not really, but kind of. How goes your cloaking experiments?"  
  
"Oh, unless we're dealing with someone willing to devote unspeakable amounts of time or energy to the task there's no way they'll be able to see we're in Los Angeles or see what I am doing." I paused. "Maybe someone using astral projection with powerful hearing standing right next to you, but they won't be able to hear from this end."  
  
"Interesting." Lauren answered. "You seem calmer than your last telepathic barrage."  
  
"Well, I am calmer. Vicki decided to run into the city because she's feeling insecure. It freaked me out a little and I was pretty sure a tracking spell was a privacy violation she didn't need right now." I explained.  
  
"One, do the fucking tracking spell. Two, girls rip each other to bits over boys, which is a lot of why I never had a boyfriend before we got locked in a magical purgatory together. Three, give Vicki this number when you find her and say as little dumb shit as possible before we talk." Lauren ordered.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I heard the phone ring and answered it as fast as I could. "Vicki? Or does Jeff need another set of directions for talking to a girl."  
  
"It's Vicki," I heard. She sounded edgy. "Is this where you tell me to take my hands off your boyfriend even though I haven't done anything wrong?"  
  
"This isn't high school, Vicki." I paused. "At least _I'm_ not in high school."  
  
"I'd be graduating next month anyway," Vicki muttered."  
  
"So, let's make this clear, you think we're kicking you out the second we don't need you because I won't let Jeff near someone as hot as you?" I asked.  
  
"I..." Vicki stammered.  
  
"Vicki, close your eyes," I demanded. I assumed she listened to my instructions. " _Esto mihi._ " I recited, and I felt Vicki's mind connect to mine and into my eyes.  
  
"What the hell?" Vicki asked as I sat down at my laptop.  
  
"This is the fastest way to do this," I explained. "See this?"  
  
"It's, huh, I know what you're looking at. Something to do with your spell I guess? It's notes on Esther's spell for vampires, right?" Vicki asked.  
  
"That's how to use Elena's blood, Rebekah's blood, and the full moon to make an ordinary vampire more indestructible than an Original," I explained. "Every spell has a loophole. The loophole for the Originals is that White Oak Tree. The loophole for this one is Jeff's heartbeat. When that heartbeat stops, the person under that spell would be merely as invincible as an ordinary vampire. If it restarts, you're back to being as invincible as my boyfriend."  
  
"So another power amplification spell," Vicki said. She was sounding calmer.  
  
"It's not just for you," I began. "No matter what, this is what I'm offering you and anyone you ask me to give it to. Matt, your mom, your long lost father if you care. Tyler, Jeremy, anyone you _want_ to be immortal. If you're feeling dependent on us, weak, stuck, this is your out. You can be impossible to stop and you can run like hell."  
  
"What. You're telling me to go?" Vicki sounded hurt.  
  
"I'm telling you that you can go _if you want_. We've been your only ticket out of hell. If you are scared of us, then you can stop being scared forever. Run, be immortal, be strong, have mind control powers and super speed." I paused. "I want to be super clear that you're free."  
  
"Free?" Vicki laughed. "Is that what you think this is about?"  
  
"Actually, Damon and Elena have been saying you want to fuck my boyfriend for weeks and I think you're scared I'm going to throw you back to the Other Side if you try." I explained evenly.  
  
Vicki was very quiet. I felt her thoughts racing, but the spell wasn't strong enough for me to read her mind. "Lauren. I wouldn't do that to you."  
  
"Here's the thing, Vicki; I trust my own instincts a lot, and I trust you. You're not trying to hurt me. You're _also_ confused because nobody has ever been as nice to you as you deserved besides for me and Jeff. Jeremy thought he could make you as classy as his mother and twice as good in the sack, while everyone else thought they could treat you like shit and you wouldn't mind. So you think you're going to screw up the best thing that has ever happened to you by being too friendly or too slutty to Jeff." I waited for Vicki to respond.  
  
"What the hell are you saying?" Vicki asked.  
  
"I'm saying you're _safe_ ," I explained. "I am saying if you go too far, we're not going to stop being friends. I'm saying that if we're too much you don't need us, either. But I want you to be happy, and to be yourself, so I'm giving you every pass and out I can handle."  
  
"Um..." Vicki sounded very confused.  
  
"Okay, I'll put this simply; please don't fuck my boyfriend. Even if you do, you'll find a way to make it up to me, you won't be kicked out." I sighed. "Got it?"  
  
"...got it." Vicki answered.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
**Wyld**  
  
I heard the phone ring again. Lauren was crying.  
  
"What did I do?" I asked.  
  
"Nothing," Lauren answered. "I just had to do something super hard for my best friend. I'll be in Los Angeles soon. I have to see you."  
  
"What did you do?" I asked.  
  
"It's..." Lauren trailed off. "I can't tell you. Just, make sure Vicki's okay, if you can?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I paced the street corner we had agreed to meet Lauren on.  
  
"Dude, chill. I've _never_ seen Bonnie this nervous and it's weirding me out." Vicki sat on the curb and sipped from a blood bag, looking happier.  
  
"You still like the taste of blood when your body stopped needing it. You're the weird one," I jabbed.  
  
"It's not really the taste." Vicki looked at the blood bag. "When I killed that woman while feeding I felt terrible. I didn't mean to kill her. But it's like, I had her life in my hands. Even Damon couldn't save her when he was an Original. Nothing could stop me. For once I was Rebekah Mikaelson, all blonde angles and death. Even if it is super gross I want one last memory of tasting blood in this body."  
  
"You've hung around me _way_ too much," I suggested. We perked up as we heard a car, the only car that would be driving towards us unless something had gone spectacularly wrong. The van with a u-haul appeared in the distance, moving at a slow and careful gate around stopped cars. I waved happily.  
  
"Damn it, okay, now you remind me _too much_ of Bonnie when she was on the cheerleading squad!" Vicki laughed, but also looked more relaxed and tossed away the blood bag.  
  
Lauren arrived and I hugged her before she got out of the car.  
  
"Slow down, Ellen," Lauren said. "Let's not molest the nice witch, okay?"  
  
"Eh, nothing you don't see in the stoner pit," Vicki answered and side armed a hug into the car.  
  
"I'm not going to take that as a sign it's _not_ a sex crime," I said thoughtfully and stepped back. "So, what do we do about Bonnie and Rebekah, anyway?"  
  
"Um..." Vicki frowned. "I kind of thought we'd have you swallow a roofie, pull you out of Bonnie, and send the witch to Elena?"  
  
"Do we really want a full powered, confused, betrayed witch to be informed of what happened by Elena?" I asked.  
  
"Huh." Lauren looked thoughtful. "Follow me to the van. I have some ideas."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
"So the salt circle..." Vicki looked at it. "You'd think you guys would use something better than rock salt being like, super witches, right?"  
  
"Actually, rock salt's an amazing binding agent and table salt is almost as good," Lauren explained. Things don't become _better_ because they're more rare or expensive. It's more that the most expensive spell ingredient that happens to be necessary is the limiting factor. If a sapphire a dandelion are both equally necessary for a spell, which one takes up a witch's attention? Salt lines are great for cutting out undue influences."  
  
"Jesus, okay." Vicki sat down and stretched out her toes, looking happy to be back to her old self.  
  
"Alright. So a while back you said something about looking for a spell to improve your memory," Lauren said. "I forgot about it until I was looking over some of Dr. Martin's notes on the grimoires, but there's a whole section on Nordic vision magic that deals with knowledge and memory."  
  
"Ooh." I looked at Lauren's laptop.  
  
"So, the reason we betrayed Bonnie is basically that we were surrounded by people we couldn't trust at all, including her, right? So we use this spell to construct your memories of the show you watched, _The Vampire Diaries_ and clarify them, strengthen them, purify them. We share them with Bonnie. Sure, she might not forgive us, but we can probably get her to understand why we did what we did and hopefully keep _Bonnie_ on her guard against betrayal or abuse."  
  
"Wait." Vicki frowned. "So you're saying we're going to what, see bits of Jeff watching The Vampire Diaries in the past and hope that clears everything up for the neighborhood witch?"  
  
"Not exactly. When you remember something, the memory changes and is constructed by being accessed. She won't be seeing the past, she'll be seeing how Jeff remembers the past. We can all be linked together for it, too."  
  
"Okay." I laughed. "So, is it just me or is this a framing device for a clip show?"  
  
"As much as I'd love to be reminded my life is a lie written by people with untreated depression, I think I have a better idea for handling Bonnie," Vicki suggested.  
  
"What?" I asked.  
  
"You drink. I snap her neck. She rises a vampire. No enemy Bennett witch. Elena's BFF doesn't know everything we know. No one dies." Vicki answered.  
  
I looked at Vicki. There was a coldness in her eyes. I considered the idea of forcibly turning Bonnie. "That's wrong."  
  
"Actually, she's right." Lauren said softly. She touched my arm, Bonnie's arm.  
  
"Bonnie doesn't deserve that," I pointed out.  
  
"You can trust her, but I _don't_." Lauren gave me a sad smile. "Your idea might work, but it's just too risky."  
  
I swallowed. "We're not the bad guys, Lauren."  
  
"Okay then." Lauren frowned. "You can wipe her memory, right? Convince _us_. Show me why Bonnie gets to be a witch, but had to be tricked and have her body controlled because everyone around her wasn't trustworthy."  
  
"This could be tricky," I admitted.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
The immortal drank deeply from the memory enhancing elixir we had drawn up. Jeff drank with a kind of gravity I had not seen before, his true body looking somehow improved from the last round as a statue being used to draw Travelers from the Other Side.  
  
I sat next to Bonnie's sleeping body and felt calm wash over me. It had been a long time since I had felt so safe. The Travelers were off my back, the Thirteen were nowhere to be found, we had a way out of the prison dimension, Vicki seemed to be less terrified of me _and_ confused enough not to try and steal my boyfriend.  
  
"Drink." Jeff handed me the dregs of the elixir. "You too, Vicki. Unless you've got a hot date?"  
  
"I'm in." Vicki answered. Vicki put her finger in and swirled it around before pulling it out and licking it clean. I muttered a low incantation and sucked the last of it into my mouth.  
  
"Take my hand," I said and both did it. We formed a rough triangle around Bonnie, with Jeff at the head, standing in the salt circle. "Ready?"  
  
"Ready," Jeff and Vicki said together. I close my eyes. " _Nos phasmatos aetum vestri somnia._ "  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I looked around the room. The walls were a pale green. The floor was hardwood and lacked a carpet. Jeff sat at a low table with a desktop computer on it. On Jeff's bed lay Bonnie, dreaming of waking up. Vicki stood at the door, looking at a terrarium containing a tortoise.  
  
"My old room," Jeff explained. "We'll want to make my visions a bit less literal, I think."  
  
"What's going on?" Bonnie asked from the bed.  
  
"Hello, Bonnie." Jeff said. "What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
"I was helping Lauren take Jeff's spirit out of Kol." Bonnie sounded confused. "What happened?"  
  
"Overall, we won. Klaus is dead. Elena was never sacrificed. Without what you did that would have been impossible," Jeff sounded shy as he held back the truth; maybe he just wanted to see the relief on Bonnie's face.  
  
"Jeff is leaving out something important," I added. "We didn't just need your help taking Jeff out of Kol."  
  
"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked. Her eyes were bright, innocent.  
  
"Jeff needed a body to keep getting us out. We needed Kol free. I'm sorry, but we took yours," I explained.  
  
Bonnie's mouth opened with shock.  
  
"I'm sorry." Jeff said. He sounded pained.  
  
"You stole my body when I helped you free Kol. Why would you do that?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"There's a phrase..." Jeff began. Vicki cut him off.  
  
"Hey, Bon." Vicki stepped forward. Bonnie's eyes grew wide again.  
  
"Vicki. I thought you ran off. What are you doing here?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"No one told you they killed me?" Vicki asked with a degree of disgust.  
  
"What? Who killed you. Was it Jeff?" Bonnie asked. We all laughed at that.  
  
"Remember that pile of junkies they said got burned up in the woods?" Vicki asked. "My friends, _all_ of my friends, really. That was Damon Salvatore."  
  
"No." Bonnie frowned.  
  
"Yes." Vicki smiled and showed fang. Bonnie flinched. "I was 'lucky.' I just wouldn't die. Damon fed on me, fed me his blood, all but raped me, and then snapped my neck. When I woke up I was turning into a vampire. I wanted to see Matt or maybe Jeremy. I was drunk and exhausted and barely remembered where I was. He let me go home."  
  
"You were turning into a vampire." Bonnie said. "He didn't tell you what, anything?"  
  
"He seemed to think it'd be really funny if I ate Jeremy," Vicki answered.  
  
" _Why_?" Bonnie choked out.  
  
"The mass murder, that was after Stefan tried to finish Damon off for a while. Poison him, lock him in a dungeon, let him starve. Took his daylight ring too. The abuse of Vicki, the risking other lives, that was just because he was bored and angry." Jeff stepped forward.  
  
"No one told me. Did Elena know?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"The perky bitch is why I died a _second_ time." Vicki answered.  
  
"This was a little while later. Damon let Vicki escape while Stefan was trying to teach her how not to kill. Vicki was brand new. Almost killed Jeremy. Elena ran to the rescue with Stefan. Vicki was fighting like a wild animal, about to kill Elena, and so Stefan staked her." Jeff answered.  
  
"It wasn't like that!" Vicki snapped.  
  
"I saw it, Vicki." Jeff answered. "Yes it was."  
  
"You're Jeff, the psychic." Bonnie articulated. "Are you Lauren, then?" She asked me.  
  
"The one and the only." I answered.  
  
"Oh my god. Is that what Jeremy remembered when he turned?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"No one told you that. Figures." Jeff laughed darkly.  
  
"So you two, what, befriended Vicki and are listening to her side of the story?" Bonnie asked. "I mean, what happened was terrible, but-"  
  
"No buts." Jeff declared. " _Psychic_. I knew all about that before it happened. I've seen the Salvatores do worse. A lot worse."  
  
"I know they did bad things." Bonnie frowned. "But Stefan's changed. He's said he was a monster, before."  
  
"I've seen him do worse in the future, the one where I never arrived in Mystic Falls," Jeff corrected. "Want to know how the night ends without us?"  
  
"You were breaking with the plan because Klaus said jump. How can I trust a word you say?"  
  
"You're a witch. I can show you the spell I'm using once we're done. We're in my memories. A recreation, an edit, but you can feel if they're deceptive. If you want to talk Klaus, let's talk Klaus." Jeff smiled darkly.  
  
Bonnie frowned. "I don't understand."  
  
"We're in my memories." Jeff explained. "Let's show you _exactly_ what happens when Klaus has something Stefan wants." He put out his dream of a hand, and Bonnie took it. " _Esto mihi._ " Bonnie's eyes rolled back in her head as she began to feel and see Jeff's memories of a world he had broken.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I stood with Jeff as Bonnie woke up. It felt like we'd been down for hours, though checking my phone it had been minutes. Bonnie darted to the laptop we had set up and started to read the spell design intently.  
  
"She knows we're right," Jeff whispered to me.  
  
"She won't understand the spell. She's too new, too inexperienced, too poorly educated. All you did was use a spooky voice and really good shadow puppets," I challenged.  
  
"She believes us." Jeff paused. "For now."  
  
"Mind reading is cheating," I giggled.  
  
"What _was_ that?" Bonnie asked. "I wouldn't kill my Grams. If Stefan was that bad how could he care about _anyone_? I don't understand."  
  
"You'd do anything for your friends, Bonnie." Jeff blurred next to her. "That includes brinkmanship with your grandmother to open a magical tomb. She knew it was risk her life or lose yours. She'd do anything for you, too." Jeff paused. "It's not really your fault. Your family should've started teaching you about the world way sooner. You can't expect a teenager to understand what she is doing if you only start training her at sixteen. Call the Gemini Coven a bunch of lunatics, but activating power as soon as possible is the right choice."  
  
"I got almost sixteen years of a normal life. You think they should've what, locked me in some creepy rustic compound full of witches and taught me how to kill vampires instead?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"I was homeschooled," Jeff muttered defensively. "I'd have at least put you in Girl Scouts if I was doing that."  
  
"Jeff's unsettling perspective on parenting aside, it'd probably be best if you put yourself together. We have some cloaking spells we want to complete before the next stage begins." I told Bonnie.  
  
"What's the next stage?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"Let's see..." I knelt down and brought up a document on the laptop. "List of people we promised to bring back from the dead."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"Personal objects galore!" Jeff poured the bag I had gathered onto the table. An ancient photo of Katerina Petrova, Stefan's daylight ring, Sheila Bennett's reading glasses, Jeremy Gilbert's headphones and Aunt Jenna's earrings.  
  
"If we're trying to bribe Elena into liking us with necromancy shouldn't we be bringing her parents back?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Elena's parents were not supernatural. If you aren't heavily touched by magic then you can't linger on the Other Side. Doppelgangers, werewolves, vampires and witches, they all get stuck until they find peace. If there's a spell to just _yank_ the soul from wherever it goes I don't know it," I explained.  
  
"Weird." Vicki nodded.  
  
"Very." Jeff agreed. "Atticus brought objects with him back on Earth, but I don't think we need to get them before we start our black magic."  
  
Bonnie walked in. She'd been scrubbing herself in the shower for the last two hours after she'd processed that Jeff had been in her body; not an urge I could empathize with. She was dressed in clothing that clearly came from robbing an abandoned Macy's in this dimension. I felt Vicki had better taste from her clothing robberies, but Vicki was used to this.  
  
"You can help me contact Grams?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"I'm thinking she's more likely to want to come back if you're the one doing the talking," Jeff explained. "We've done the spells without you."  
  
"Yeah." Bonnie eyed Vicki. "I can see that." She looked around the room. "Where's this great cloaking spell you did?"  
  
"Ah." Jeff tossed her a small fabric bag. "Carry this with you. Blocks Astral Projection, nosy spirits, super-hearing and tracking spells. We've been bringing this up in stages since a bit before Lauren arrived. This will make sure no one knows exactly where you are or what you're doing if you hold onto it."  
  
"Impressive." Bonnie sniffed it. "Smells nice, too."  
  
"There's some kitchen herbs that happen to be magical in there," Jeff explained."  
  
"The thing we're trying to hide is Jeff figured out how to store some of the power used to get between the worlds into a potion," I added. "We can pour it onto the Ascendant, and we don't need to be near the power I used to make the prison world to get there."  
  
"That helps us because...?" Bonnie asked.  
  
"Well, my enemies, the Coven of the Thirteen, weren't lying in wait in the Prison World end of it. I'm guessing that Elijah showing up out of nowhere threw them for a loop, but they won't be thrown _forever_. The less tied to the location we are the less likely they are to ambush us if we keep using the prison world."  
  
"Oh, the enemies Jeff never actually explained anything about to us." Bonnie laughed. "What's up with them?"  
  
"They're body thieves. Witches who steal witch bodies to keep themselves alive and empowered. My body's got the most magical power in the world, so they want to have it." I answered. "If there's anything more specific they didn't bother to tell me when murdering my parents."  
  
"Ouch." Bonnie winced. "Why hasn't anyone stopped them before?"  
  
"Plenty of people have tried. Came close, too. But they never concentrate their full power in one place. There's thirteen of them, and if you gather twelve witches together that is enough for almost any spell. Hold one in reserve and the rest are brought back in stolen bodies after a disaster or a defeat. I'm hoping to be the one who finally catches them all, but they've been doing this for _centuries_. Then again, they haven't met _me_ before." I smiled.  
  
"You're sure of yourself," Bonnie observed.  
  
"Even if they've dealt with everything they ever met, Jeff is an immortal witch, and that's something _new_." I pointed out.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Wyld**  
  
I projected myself and Bonnie to the Other Side with Sheila's reading glasses clenched in my hands; to my surprise I found myself surrounded by Bennetts; Emily, Sheila, and another who only looked vaguely familiar.  
  
"We were expecting you." Sheila said. Bonnie's grandmother looked relieved as she hugged her granddaughter with a force of will and borrowed magic to make the spirits touch.  
  
"Apparently." I looked over the coven of spirits. "The plan with Tyler fell through; mostly due to Mason being a jackass and an idiot."  
  
"We know," Emily said with a sigh. "Honestly, Vicki was not the best diplomat to explain complicated mystical concepts. Neither are you, really."  
  
"Sorry about that. There were a lot of moving pieces to that plan. I'm about to open the door from the Other Side to Earth. Sheila's invited." I paused. "It's not an _open_ invitation to be honest. I'm not entirely sure we're all on the same side."  
  
"Boy, you killed Niklaus. We all know how hard it is to say no to Qetsiyah. We're on the same side." An old looking spirit said.  
  
"Nice to meet someone sensible." I smiled at her.  
  
"We've all made mistakes," She nodded.  
  
"This is Ayana, mentor of Esther." Emily said. "She definitely made mistakes."  
  
"If you don't mind me asking, what _were_ you doing in Norway as a black woman in the time of the vikings?" I asked.  
  
"Witches traveled all over the world in those days. That vampire, Pearl, was a witch in Euope when Kol turned her even though she was born in China. As vampires spread, witches stopped moving so freely," Ayana explained.  
  
I paused. "Katherine turned Pearl."  
  
"Did she tell you that?" Emily sounded amused.  
  
"She did." I paused. "I believed something that Katerina Petrova told me without confirmation, didn't I?"  
  
"Jeremy Gilbert and Jenna Sommers are alive and following you under the idea of being a secret weapon if you try and betray Elena," Ayana said with some amusement in her voice."  
  
"Well, I can't blame them." I admitted.  
  
"Are you all coming back, then?" Bonnie asked tentatively.  
  
"No, Child; just me." Sheila said.  
  
"Coming back makes it harder to move on." Emily said. The witch played by the actress from _Buffy_ looked rather conflicted about it.  
  
"What'd I do with a new life?" Ayana laughed. "I've been dead for a thousand years and my body was full of cancer and worms when I died. I'm freer here than I ever was alive."  
  
"I guess you're the ones who would know," I nodded at them.  
  
"I just want to be cured, son." Sheila explained. "The Other Side is worse for vampires than for witches."  
  
"Does that mean you're going to leave all over again?" Bonnie asked. I heard fear in the young witch's voice.  
  
"Not right away, no. But Bonnie, I'm already old. I can't live forever." Sheila said softly. "There's something beautiful to find out here, and if I didn't die I'd never get to see it."  
  
"Why not wait until after Bonnie dies to take the Cure?" I asked. I felt it was a reasonable course of action.  
  
"She would live a cursed life; a life without magic. Innocent people would die and she'd feel every death like her own. She'd feel too much, and either die young or turn off her humanity within years." Emily told us. "Kind people suffer as vampires."  
  
"I guess it's good I'm a dick," I said cheerfully.  
  
"You're not a vampire," Ayana reminded me. "When you possessed Kol you had his instincts protecting you."  
  
"Fair enough." I shrugged.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I met Katherine alone. She was on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  
  
"Nice spot," I said.  
  
Katherine looked up curiously. "Jeff?" She asked.  
  
"I'm starting to get tired of that name, honestly," I answered. "My girlfriend likes it, but it's just the name of the vessel I arrived in."  
  
"Oh great, you're speaking in riddles now." Katherine sighed. "So what's up?"  
  
"Well, you need an update at least. Stefan Salvatore and Sheila Bennett are alive, ish. I thought I'd offer you a trip back to the land of the living, though we have yet to obtain your true payment of Amara's body."  
  
"Well that's working out better than I expected." Katherine observed.  
  
"Honestly I would like it if you kept tabs on Elijah and the other Originals on the Other Side for now. I trust you to be an expert on following them and you know them personally. There's not much in it for you though; I'm going to be working on your daughter and on the Amara form anyway."  
  
"I haven't fed in days; I want out." Katherine shook her head. "I miss food, both the two-legged kind and the stuff you get from a chef."  
  
"You're the one who gave me the artifact I am using for necromancy. It'd be bad advertising not to use it on you." I nodded. "Let's get you to the creepy ghost town version of Los Angeles."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Lauren and I watched the small gang that had assembled at the Beverly Hills Mariott Hotel.  
  
"God damn it feels crowded in here now," Vicki said as she sped up next to us.  
  
"Funny," Lauren patted her on the shoulder.  
  
"Our population _did_ double in almost half an hour," I agreed with Vicki. "Almost double," I corrected myself. "Or more? How are we counting Bonnie and Rebekah and their bodies?"  
  
"Do we do anything about Rebekah's body?" Vicki asked. "Her spirit's off in New Orleans or whatever, but do we need to like, feed it?"  
  
"Not while it's linked to the others, that's water and nutrition and air taken care of. I'd do a ceremonial sacrifice and preservation spell on an uninhabited human body to keep it dead but easy to revive, but if the link breaks she's a vampire not a human, so no reason to worry. Maybe they'll all get a cramp or bedsore, but I don't think the linking spell is that sensitive." I shrugged.  
  
"Good to know I can just stuff her in the trunk if we go anywhere," Vicki nodded. "Whatever happened to Damon's body, anyway?"  
  
"Did I never talk about that? I guess a lot was happening." Lauren began." "The Travelers were holding it when he bolted and I was still on a boat hundreds of miles out to sea. By the time I got there the Travelers had prepared him for doom magic, but Sage must've found a witch to do protection spells on Finn's body as I couldn't do anything to Damon there. If I knew more I'd do it, but I settled for draining his body of blood and staking it." Lauren answered.  
  
"Fair enough." I nodded. "We agree there's _no_ chance a revived Stefan will derail whatever Sage is doing with Damon in Finn's body and Finn in some serial killer witch's body, right?"  
  
"Agreed." Vicki and Lauren said in unison.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
Katherine looked over the symbols I had written with an interested expression. "So this compost pile will help us find Amara?"  
  
"It'll help us link you to Amara, as you're her doppelganger. We can then use you to track through the Traveler cloaking spell." I placed the Ascendant in the middle of the pile and drew a line of salt from it to a map.  
  
"You said she's the Anchor to the Other Side and in constant pain, right?" Katherine asked.  
  
"Every supernaturally marked soul is drawn to Amara. Amara feels a piece of their life and death as the Other Side traps the spirit. She's also been starving for a thousand years, an immortal without access to human blood to power her yet unable to die. Fortunately the _immortal_ part means that once she's fed she'll be back to normal. That just leaves transforming the anchor of the Other Side and putting it in someone or something that's not Amara."  
  
"Is that actually possible, or just something you assume you can do?" Katherine asked.  
  
"Moving a spell's focus is possible. It's usually a form of sacrificial magic, using a magical object to make a new magical object, but immortality spells make 'sacrifices' go pretty weirdly. With doppelganger blood, a massive source of power, and a Bennett to do the spell it shouldn't be too difficult to manage the transition."  
  
"If the Travelers have Amara cloaked they won't give her up without a fight. You have realized you're going to have to kill people, right?" Katherine asked.  
  
"You're cynical," I shrugged. "I've dealt with Travelers before." I paused. "Honestly, I owe them a reprisal. They use Amara's indestructible anchor nature to bring people back from the dead, and were able to link me to her to bring people back from the dead into this reality. They have a substitute for us now, and limiting their ability to come back into the real world should get more of them in here."  
  
"Huh." Katherine looked at me. "You're sure restarting this supernatural war won't end with me captured?"  
  
"Nope," I answered. "If you go on the run I'm guessing they have ways to track you down. They also have an incentive or two to capture you and use you, or just punish you for stealing something they want. I'm hoping we can just make a deal and they'll be happy with a new and improved anchor to the Other Side, but if I were you I'd stay with me for a while to stay safe."  
  
"Your girlfriend's a saint if she keeps letting you gather girls to ogle." Katherine laughed. "Bonnie and that vampire jailbait."  
  
"Bonnie's the jailbait. Vicki's eighteen." I answered. Then I paused. "I kind of checked her birth certificate at city hall to make sure she wasn't lying about that to make things easier. Totally eighteen when Damon turned her."  
  
"Well that's even more creepy," Katherine gave me a look.  
  
"I'm allowed to make sure a vampire stoner is being truthful before I concede an argument centered on fake IDs and Hollywood casting decisions!" I argued.  
  
Katherine just shook her head. "Are we doing this spell or not?"  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat in a Starbucks I'd been to a hundred times with my dad. This time, Jeff was with me. This time of day it was crowded. The press of people felt weird to me after being in the Prison World for so long.  
  
"Think Elena's lying to us?" I asked as we watched the cars go by.  
  
"Nope." Jeff shook his head. "See that kid?" He pointed at a ten year old boy walking down the sidewalk. "That's what Elena said to look for."  
  
"He's well dressed," I commented. "Looks like a preppy kid out for a jog."  
  
Jeff muttered an incantation and I saw through his enhanced eyes. "See, that's a daylight amulet as a bracelet. I was a Boy Scout. No boy that age would wear that kind of jewelry so casually."  
  
"You're _that_ sure?" I asked.  
  
"No, but he's been coming by twice a day since Elena started camping out here. The one middle schooler with a mom who wants him to wear fancy jewelry and an interest in jogging is not just going to happen to jog near the magical hot spot you used to make your Prison World. That's an enemy agent." Jeff explained.  
  
"Alright." I nodded. "Ready?"  
  
"Yep." Jeff said. I heard his low chant in Czech begin and I got up, putting my phone to my ear and pretending to be answering a call while I just happened to be walking in the direction of the kid. It should be easy to pretend to be a normal person in public again, right?  
  
A pillar of smoke was rising into the sky by the time I heard people begin to shout. I pulled the arm holding my phone down t and burst forward. "I'm a doctor!" I shouted to people as they milled in confusion. The boy was smoking and screaming as his daylight amulet gave out.  
  
"Ahhh!" The boy screamed as I knelt down next to his burning body. " _Phasmatos Somnus,"_ I whispered into his burning ear. The boy stopped screaming. I hit "send" with my hand and waited for Jeff stopped dispelling the protection on the child vampire. " _Suctus Incendia,"_ I whispered and the fires died back until a second later when Jeff stopped chanting.  
  
Stefan arrived in an ambulance I had teleported over from the Prison World before the real authorities arrived to investigate spontaneous human combustion. I muttered a few spells as Stefan and Katherine, dressed as EMTs, took the unconscious vampire boy into the ambulance. The spells would keep him from leaving us or the ambulance from being tracked by spells. We drove to a parking lot and I pulled out the Ascendant and one of the new transportation potions. It took less than five minutes from seeing the boy to get him into the Prison World.  
  
"That was fun," Stefan said. "These things are a lot easier to steer then they used to be."  
  
"I'm getting a change of clothes," Katherine pouted. "Tell me if you learn anything useful from this runt."  
  
I smiled. "Wear something that deals well with blood. If this creature knows anything about the Thirteen I'm going to be getting some revenge."


	19. Chapter 19

**Wyld**  
  
I leaned over the comatose child vampire. "I've never seen one of these on the show," I murmured. "Klaus's baby would have vampire traits, but nothing like this."  
  
"I heard the Thirteen had child servants, but it's one thing to hear about it, another thing to see a child turned into a vampire," Lauren whispered.  
  
We had turned a jail cell into our interrogation room. Outside of the bars we had made a pile of objects that Lauren had reported were full of magical power. From inside the boy's chest we had pulled an ingot of gold filled with vervain. The boy had a silver necklace that had burned Lauren when she touched it, the Daylight Amulet on his wrist, and a small bone knife hidden in his sneaker. This boy was absolutely working for witches.  
  
"I got it." Vicki walked in, wearing heavy gloves and pushing a shopping cart full of flowers. "Thank God for the internet and ambitious landscapers.  
  
"One sec," I picked it up. "You're sure it's vervain?"  
  
"Duh." Vicki rolled her eyes.  
  
I traced the flower over the unconscious vampire and saw a thin line of smoke. "Alright. Good job." I grabbed the cart. "There's a kitchen in the jailhouse, so we can prepare this into the liquid version to pump the kid full of it."  
  
"Is it really necessary; he looks ten?" Vicki asked.  
  
"He could be a thousand years old. We're pumping him full of vervain and bleeding him dry before we wake him up. We already cast a boundary spell to keep him in that cell." I answered.  
  
"I can't imagine being turned that young," Vicki looked down at the smaller vampire. "Poor kid."  
  
"You were barely eighteen," I answered. "Sure, your actress is probably twenty-seven or something but you'll be carded for centuries."  
  
"That's literally what compulsion is for!" Vicki argued.  
  
"Do you really want to be only get dates from people who wanna date jailbait forever?" Lauren jabbed.  
  
"Like you wouldn't haves stuck yourself at eighteen if you could." Vicki flashed fang and Lauren blushed. I left the girls to it as I went to prepare the vervain.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
When I returned Lauren was stretched out with scratch paper and drawing lines around the talismans picked up from the miniature vampire.  
  
"Thank god!" Vicki jumped to her feet. "Lauren was threatening to make me get a graphing calculator."  
  
"It'd be helpful," Lauren got up. "Whoever made these things must have spent decades on it. I've never seen things like this before."  
  
"Makes sense for immortal body snatchers to spend decades making tools," I answered.  
  
"Um, how does that work?" Vicki asked.  
  
"Pretty sure they stabbed a baby with this, fed it vampire blood, then they let him grow up and die of old age with it still sticking out of him," Lauren pointed at the knife.  
  
"My god, _why_?" Vicki asked, looking absolutely revolted.  
  
"Half our skill, no doppelganger blood, a lot less magical knowledge, a tenth of our power, and a lot of time," I answered. "Also complete lack of respect for human life and well-being, but that's hardly unusual here. An entire life _lived_ , that'd be an insane binding agent. What the hell were they even trying to bind with it?" I asked.  
  
"Power gathered from a couple thousand drowning victims," Lauren answered. "It's what they do. Enough people drown while they're channeling the body of water and they could do just about anything." Lauren paused. "I have no idea what they wanted it _for_ , though. Pretty sure if you stab an Original with it then the Original would be stopped cold, but there's gotta be better ways and it's not like they've been _fighting_ the Originals long enough to get desperate for countermeasures."  
  
"Well they knew Elijah worked with us," I pondered. "Maybe they expected him to show up, and tasked this kid with stopping him? Vervain to keep Elijah from compelling him, weapon to take down Elijah. But yeah, the timeline's wrong if this would take a human lifetime to make. Maybe they were afraid of something else, like Silas?"  
  
"Silas was stuck in a cave starving and this wouldn't _kill_ him. Still makes no sense." Lauren answered.  
  
"Well..." I gestured at the boy. "We could ask."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
With the floor covered in symbols we had drawn in rock salt, a few buckets of drained blood, a vampire pumped full of vervain, and the three of us standing together, we felt ready to tackle the creature in the cell.  
  
Lauren spoke a clear incantation and the boy jerked awake. He flailed wildly for a second before he saw Lauren and smiled.  
  
"You're the aberration." He spoke clearly.  
  
"You're one to talk," Lauren frowned back at him.  
  
"My family will be looking for me. They'll be here very soon," He laughed. Everything about the boy's movements was creeping me out.  
  
"We're in the Prison World I made, moron." Lauren answered him. "We've got the Ascendant on us."  
  
"Ascendants are paired. There's one in each world," He answered.  
  
"I didn't know that when I was making it. This one travelers when the user does." Lauren paused. "Well, it does if you're touching it. Mine was snatched when I made the thing."  
  
"You're lying," The boy snarled.  
  
"Damn you're dumb. We caught you. Now, if you cooperate we'll send you to the Other Side when we're done and maybe the Thirteen can bring you back. Piss us off and we'll nail you inside a box and dump it in a lake." Lauren snapped.  
  
"They'd just dig me out," The boy laughed.  
  
"Prison World. No one can get in!" Lauren shouted.  
  
"I still don't believe you." The boy explained.  
  
"Okay, let's try this. **You believe Lauren that we're in the Prison World and control access to it.** " I forced psychic power into my voice.  
  
The boy shuddered. "How did you do that?" He asked. "I can feel the verbena in my body."  
  
"What, do you think I'm an _Original_?" I asked.  
  
There was no trace of fear on the boy's face, he was perfectly controlled, but I felt it through my active psychic powers. "The aberration cast an immortality spell on her lover with the White Oak wood in Mystic Falls. The flower will still protect against compulsion."  
  
"Guess again. My immortality spell is the one used on _Silas_." I answered.  
  
Still no trace of fear in the body of the boy, but the feeling of it was getting stronger. "That is impossible. The tombstone was undisturbed when we checked. The sirens wouldn't have been copied into a mirror world."  
  
"Sirens?" Lauren asked. "The servants of Arcadius?"  
  
"You've been busy." The child answered. "How on Earth do you get so many people to talk to you?"  
  
"My winning personality," Lauren answered. "Jeff, he's jerking us around a lot. Let's just compel him and get it over with."  
  
"If you say so." I answered. **"Tell us the last thing you would want Lauren to know**."  
  
The boy winced and I saw him dig his fingers deep into his hand. The pain gave him some clarity, but not enough. "The sirens of Arcadius hunted my parents for centuries and would gladly help you defeat them if you let them deliver the souls of my family to their master."  
  
"Well that's interesting." Lauren smiled.  
  
" **Tell me more about these sirens**." I demanded.  
  
"The sirens are thousands of years old. The sirens are said to be beautiful. The sirens lived on an island once..." I caught what he was doing.  
  
" **Tell me more about the sirens that would be useful to people fighting your masters**." I corrected.  
  
"One siren is locked in a vault in the town of Grove Hill, Virginia, near Mystic Falls, under the headquarters of an organization called the Armory, which collects supernatural artifacts. The siren is trapped by a spell cast by a witch of the Bennett bloodline. The location of the other siren is unknown."  
  
"Well that's interesting." I nodded.  
  
Lauren looked at me. "Who are these Armory people?"  
  
"No clue," I answered. "I don't know everything." Lauren pointed at the boy. "Oh." I faced him. " **Who is the Armory and what is their motivation**?"  
  
"They are mostly academic researchers into the supernatural. Individuals have specific motivations, but I know of know major activity that was ever relevant to us." He answered.  
  
"Got any questions for him?" I asked Lauren.  
  
"Yes. Just tell him to answer my questions." Lauren answered.  
  
" **Answer Lauren's questions honestly. Answer Lauren's questions as you would if you were trying to help her achieve her own goals**." I told the boy, who visibly winced at my specifications.  
  
"Good job." Lauren smiled at me. "Why did the Thirteen attack me, specifically?"  
  
"You are the first ever manifestation of a Siphoner unconnected to the Gemini Coven's linking spells. My parents hoped to possess you, produce a lineage of unconnected Siphoners for us to possess." The boy answered.  
  
"When you speak of your parents, do you mean the entire Coven of the Thirteen, or does that mean something else?" Lauren asked.  
  
"My family's parents are the thirteen spirits you call the Coven of the Thirteen, yes. We call ourselves the Immortal Family."  
  
"I see." Lauren nodded. "Why didn't you just attack or negotiate with the Gemini Coven?"  
  
"The Gemini Coven is our equal in power due to the dark magic used in the Merge and the linking spells that connect their coven. We might not win a fight with them, and they do not trust us enough to give us access to their Siphoners. We only became aware of Siphoner Vampires existing after they were mostly sent to their Prison World and the Gemini Coven's cloaking spells prevented us from locating their Ascendant. We believed you an easy target of opportunity, and as you escalated we found ourselves unable to deescalate the conflict given the brutality of our opening moves."  
  
"You killed my parents. How do you justify that?" Lauren asked.  
  
"They were enemy combatants. Your coven serves Lucien Castle, an ancient evil vampire, meaning that their deaths served the greater good. Your powers would soon have served him, endangering many lives." He answered.  
  
Lauren blinked. "What?"  
  
"Didn't you know your coven served a vampire?" The boy seemed amused. "Why did you think so many potent bloodlines had mixed together with so little history? The violence and compulsion available to a vampire served to assemble the witches he needed for his war against Klaus Mikaelson and his related projects. The primary motivation is to replicate the Immortality Spell used on the Original Vampires and to transform Lucien into an equal of Klaus."  
  
"Did my parents know?" Lauren asked.  
  
"I cannot say for your mother, but I believe so. Your father served Lucien faithfully for decades."  
  
"If he's lying I can't sense it," I told Lauren.  
  
"Compel him to be quiet." Lauren said.  
  
" **Be quiet**." I instructed. "Lauren, I'm sorry."  
  
"I need a minute." Lauren walked out of the room and I followed her.  
  
"Are you okay?" I asked.  
  
"Are you sure he's telling the truth?" Lauren asked.  
  
"No, but it's likely. If the entire thing was a setup that's some really excellent anti-telepathy spell work. Of course, they might _have_ really excellent anti-telepathy spells, being an ancient and powerful coven." I shrugged. "We can do some digging. It might all be a couple of traps, so we should be careful."  
  
"Did you know?" Lauren asked. "You made bits of me, right? Did any of that back story come up in your writing game shit?"  
  
"No," I answered. "I remember the idea that you were dealing with witches who wanted to steal your body, and that you had some tie to the Gemini Coven thing I didn't know much about due to the document talking about Siphoners. Nothing about your coven working for a vampire."  
  
"Maybe he's a good vampire?" Lauren whispered.  
  
We both started laughing at that.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I stretched out on my hotel bed and read the notes I had on Jeff's "jumpchain spoilers."  
  
"Lucien Castle: The Beast. Vampire/Werewolf Original+Hybrid? Probably weaker than a Tribrid." I read out loud. "What the hell does that mean?"  
  
"So in the jumpchain you can buy a perk to make you into Klaus's brother. Do that and you're an Original Hybrid just like him. You can do that if you're a vampire, but you have to buy a perk that is discounted for vampires, called Ancient One. You can also buy Original Hybrid if you're a werewolf, but you need to buy a werewolf discounted perk called Evolved Werewolf. Ancient One makes you as powerful as an eight hundred year old vampire, while Evolved Werewolf gives you the power of a werewolf on the full moon all the time and control over your transformation. If for some reason you were to buy Evolved Werewolf as a vampire, or Ancient One as a werewolf, you'd be a normal Hybrid. If you were to buy both of them and Original Hybrid, it said you'd be stronger than Klaus. The example used was named Lucien Castle, 'AKA the Beast.' So I assumed he was another Hybrid."  
  
"That makes sense," I pondered. "Any chance Klaus turned a werewolf _before_ he was cursed?"  
  
"I suppose it is possible." Jeff sounded skeptical.  
  
"What do you think?" I asked him.  
  
"Well, you were talking about using Rebekah's blood in a spell to enhance Vicki, right?" Jeff picked up my laptop. "It'd work as she's a latent Mikaelson witch, but not that well. A true Mikaelson witch would be stronger. But..." Jeff used telekinesis to bring Esther's grimoire to the bed and open the book to the page he was thinking of. "See here, these notes on werewolves. I noticed some symbols here that are similar to the ones she used in her vampirism spell when marking how to use the White Oak. I think this means the White Oak Tree was used to draw power from nature into an alpha werewolf, granting the werewolf a unique power. I'm thinking the Beast isn't a natural Hybrid like Klaus, it's an artificial one. Modifying the immortality spell to draw on my own invincibility is possible, so why not draw on werewolf bloodlines?"  
  
"Huh." I looked at it and began to think out loud. "Esther has notes for seven times an alpha werewolf was empowered by the ritual. Once for strength, once for regeneration, once for speed, once for senses, once for loyalty, once to draw on the wolf form for power, and once for immunity to mind control. If you could find a good link to each empowerment ritual, a direct bloodline descendant, you could do it."  
  
"Huh." Jeff was looking at the page he'd opened. "If I'm reading this right a werewolf empowered by that spell already would practically explode if you tried to do another empowerment spell." Jeff then looked thoughtful. "Yeah, that's why they shared their powers through the marriage ritual instead of just empowering their own pack repeatedly." He shook his head. "Of course if you're immortal, you can't die from shoving more power into the body, so even if Lucien was mainlining seven empowerment spells and the powers of an Original Vampire he'd be fine."  
  
I considered the information. "So we just have to kill Lucien before-" Jeff kissed me. "What was that for?" I asked.  
  
"You're cute when you're dangerous," Jeff answered.  
  
We kissed more.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"This is my old house," I declared. "Preserved in this moment for all eternity like it was the day my parents died."  
  
"I see why we didn't come here sooner." Jeff gestured at the broken door.  
  
"Yeah." I nodded. "I think Dad died right here." I pointed at a an otherwise unremarkable spot on the wall. "His neck snapped with one gesture." I traced my fingers along the place. "He fell against the wall, but not even enough to dent."  
  
"Do you want anything here?" Jeff asked.  
  
"I don't know," I admitted. "I half want to never see this house again, but I grew up here."  
  
"So that's your family." Jeff looked at a picture on the wall. Two short blondes stood shoulder to shoulder with a smiling little girl between them.  
  
"Mom and Dad." I nodded. "Weird little Dad who kept the tail he was born with in a jar in his basement. Mom, a girl so white Indian Gramps ran a paternity test on her." I laughed a little.  
  
"Your dad had a tail?" Jeff asked.  
  
"He said it was a Gemini thing but it's not like he'd know shit about those lunatics. It's not like he had it pickled, he has this cute little talisman his parents made out of the bone for him. Neat little thing." I paused. "That's not better, is it?"  
  
"Nope." Jeff shook his head. "Think they'd have liked me?"  
  
"They'd have liked I was dating." I shrugged. "I don't think Dad would've liked that you were an invincible asshole. Mom, I think she would've appreciated that bit."  
  
"Man, that tail bone, that's the talisman we're here for, right?" Jeff looked mildly aghast.  
  
"Sorry, but yeah." I led Jeff to the attic door and flipped on the light. "Watch your head; even I bumped it sometimes."  
  
"You are even smaller than I am," Jeff noted and followed me up the stairs. "Small but finished," He noted.  
  
"Are you talking about me or the attic?" I asked.  
  
"That's a surprisingly good question." He looked at me. "You are _entirely_ baked into womanhood."  
  
"That'll have to do." I put out my hand and pulled out a trunk. "Old family shit, normal for an attic except for the witchy parts," I declared.  
  
Jeff blew off dust with a wave of his hand. "Old photo albums." He declared. "Also old Nancy Drew books."  
  
"Don't touch those!" I shouted.  
  
Jeff winced. "Your mom's?"  
  
"Yeah." I nodded. "Same with this." I pulled out a jar. "Herbs from a plant the werewolves tried to wipe out."  
  
"Interesting." Jeff looked at it. "What does it do?"  
  
"With the right spell, it makes people invincible." I explained.  
  
"Ah. Werewolves need to kill to activate their curse. Invincible people, no new werewolves." Jeff nodded.  
  
"I doubt they saw it that way, but yeah." I sighed. "And here it is." I pulled out a small box and opened it. "Daddy's tail."  
  
"Doesn't look so bad." Jeff put his hand on mine. "Do we do it here?"  
  
"Downstairs would be less dusty." I said. We went down and sat in the living room.  
  
"Need me to do anything?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Just guard my body, okay? No idea how long this will take." I held the talisman in my hand and began to chant.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
I found myself on the Other Side in the front yard. Daddy was looking at our house, which had apparently burned down in the real world.  
  
"Dad?" I asked.  
  
Daddy turned around in horror. "No!" He shouted.  
  
"Not dead. Just projecting my spirit to the Other Side!" I shouted.  
  
Daddy sighed in relief. "Where. Have. You. Been?" He asked.  
  
"I used the Ascendant I made to make a Prison World. Then I got stuck," I explained. "People said not to contact you, but this is important."  
  
"They're..." Daddy swallowed. "Right," He admitted. "Only one of the family I've talked to is Indian Gramps's. He told me not to look for you, says that kind of thing is why people stick to the Other Side. Then he spent half an hour explaining why he didn't count due to being a shaman." Daddy paused. "You might want to look him up, now that we're dead."  
  
"You're talking with Indian Grampa?" I smiled. "He hates your guts."  
  
"Yes he does." Daddy smiled. "What are you doing, then?"  
  
"Honestly, I captured an enemy and he probably wanted to fuck with your moving on, but he said things I need to confirm." I sighed. "Did you work for a vampire?"  
  
Daddy's face fell. "Yes. Not like I had a choice. You don't say no to a man like Mr. Castle."  
  
"Ah, crap. Was that why the Thirteen went after us?" I asked.  
  
"They go after anyone they can catch. Unless you want to be part of the death cult my ancestors left or bury me in New Orleans and let those lunatics boss you around that was always one of the risks. It's not like there's safety in numbers for witches." Daddy explained. "My parents worked for Mr. Castle. He said he wouldn't demand your service, but that would only last as long as I was alive. I saw how strong you were growing, and I was thinking maybe you could tell him to go to hell, but..." Daddy sighed. "Mr. Castle's still a vampire."  
  
"Well, he's dead, so that's one less problem." I answered.  
  
Daddy laughed. "Thank God for small favors. Now, is there a particular reason Travelers would ransack and burn our house?"  
  
"You mean besides all the witchy crap in the attic?" I asked.  
  
"Oh. That'd do it." Daddy smiled. "Actually, I'd suggest you don't go back home. Travelers are attacking a lot of our old friends."  
  
"Son of a _bitch_." I shook my head. "Can't take your eyes off them for two seconds."  
  
"Did you make a deal with them?" Daddy asked.  
  
"Not unless you count them politely pointing a gun at my head." I shrugged. "I thought they got what they wanted. I guess I need to slap some more sense into them."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"Markos!" I shouted into the phone.  
  
"What are you blaming me for this time?" He sounded very tired.  
  
"Travelers burned down my old house. What the hell are your people doing in Los Angeles?" I asked.  
  
"Well, apparently 'my people' took a trip to the mirror world's New Orleans, read up on how those covens tied themselves to the Earth and the Ancestors, and had the brilliant idea of trying it out for themselves." Markos explained. "I am trying to keep track of three lunatic splinter factions who have decided that a door in and out of this world means they have nothing to fear and they should do whatever the hell they want. I suppose I can't expect you to help me get control of them?"  
  
"No chance in hell." I paused. "Maybe Jeff will forgive you if you can hand over the Anchor to the Other Side."  
  
"What does Jeff want with _Amara_?" Markos asked.  
  
"Eh, he promised he'd put Katerina Petrova into Amara's body to get the Ascendant. Long story." I smiled at the long pause on Markos's end.  
  
"It'd have to be a long story. That might be the best option at this point. I suppose if I don't offer a reasonable trade he'll just take it, anyway." Markos sounded resigned.  
  
"Jeff has literally prepared a truck with heavy munitions he grabbed from an abandoned military base. Be nice." I insisted.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
**Wyld**  
  
"Hi." I said to the phone receiver. "How goes New Orleans?"  
  
"My underwear chafes, I've cut myself shaving on sixteen occasions, my suits are as hot as the fires of hell in New Orleans heat, and Rebekah has locked me in the closet." Elijah answered. "I had forgotten how disgusting it was to live as a human."  
  
"I'm glad you're having a good time. How's your mother doing?" I asked.  
  
"My mother is in a magically induced coma, fighting off a death curse cast by the followers of Dahlia. This prevents me from interrogating her about her abandonment of Freya and otherwise confirming the stories you have told me about her. Can we please dispense with the pleasantries and get to the actual reason you called?" Elijah asked.  
  
"Ever heard of a guy named Lucien Castle?" I asked.  
  
"Lucien is the name of Klaus's first sire. Lucien was a servant of the Count de Martel and had no last name at the time, but if I had to guess who you are blabbering about that would be him. I compelled him to think he was Klaus for a century to try and distract Mikael, but the compulsion broke when the Brotherhood of the Five used the White Oak Ash Daggers on us. I hate the man, but if Klaus's entire sireline is deceased he should be among them." Elijah sounded exhausted. "If you want to speak to someone who actually liked the man you should seek out Aurora de Martel, the first vampire Rebekah created. Now, unless you can unlock doors from wherever the hell you are I really need to work on picking this lock."  
  
"You have fun." I answered and hung up.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"Got a name?" I asked the child vampire prisoner.  
  
"Gerald," He muttered.  
  
"So, when were you turned, Gerald?" I asked. "And why?"  
  
"My parents turned me in twelve-oh-eight." He explained. "As to why? They wanted a child. Without children there is no family. They would never die, so they needed children who would never age. They searched orphanages for decades until they found the perfect children for their family. They adopted me as an infant, raised me, and snapped my neck before my voice dropped."  
  
"Do you regret it?" I asked.  
  
"Regret not growing up? No. If I would have, they wouldn't have turned me. I love being a child." Gerald sounded wistful. "I have been alive for eight centuries. I have learned a hundred languages, climbed mountains barefoot and killed lions with my bare hands. Can you imagine how bright it is, to be a child forever?"  
  
"No, I can't." I sighed. "Maybe if I'd turned as a child I'd never have regretted it. No chance at my own children, at love, at independence. A life without responsibility. You know we'll have to make good on our threat, right?"  
  
"Of course." Gerald nodded. "You will torture a child to your best ability for not betraying his parents. You're really messed up, you know that."  
  
"No, Gerald. I'm not torturing you to the best of my ability." I smiled. " **Think of the worst thing that could possibly happen to you**." I saw Gerald wince. "If I was torturing you to the best of my ability, I'd make you hallucinate that happening to you. Or perhaps I'd compel you to think of the worst _things_ that could happen to you, and compel you to start hallucinating the worst if you went a minute without thinking of something worse than the worst thing you'd imagined."  
  
"How the _hell_ do you think up things like that?" Gerald asked angrily.  
  
"Well, here's the thing, your 'family' decided to hunt my innocent girlfriend and breed her like cattle. I vent my stress about that by thinking up really nasty things to do about that." I explained. "Because I have _some_ pride I am not going to do that to a bit player in this game."  
  
"You think she's an innocent victim?" Gerald laughed. "She's an aberration against Nature. Miscegenation of the Everlasting and Gemini bloodlines created that beast. You've seen how violent and ruthless she has become with the mildest excuse. When the Heretics were free they were a cabal of Rippers responsible for thousands of deaths. Lauren's own parents served a lord among vampires."  
  
"You really are a little shit, you know." I smiled. "Here." I took a notebook from the table and tossed it into the cell alongside a pen. " **Write down everything you think you know about Lauren and her allies, every weakness you believe we have, every likely strategy you would use to fight her, and everything you believe would be helpful to her and her allies if we knew about it. Organize the information in a manner easy to read. Do not do anything to obfuscate or destroy this information. Once you are done, put the notebook outside of your cell and out of your reach**."  
  
I felt better.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
Driving across the country was time consuming and annoying at the best of times, but doing it with Lauren and Vicki was significantly easier than doing it with Vicki and Elijah. Even a Katherine Pierce following us in a motorcycle was pretty interesting.  
  
We looked over Gerald's notebook as we ate. Gerald was nailed into a coffin inside a random pond we'd driven by somewhere in Kansas.  
  
"So do you have _any_ idea why these Armory people would gather up everything particularly cool and interesting they can and then _not_ use it?" Vicki asked us.  
  
"Um..." I frowned. "Religion?"  
  
"That's not an answer." Lauren replied. "Um, maybe they do want to use it, but are led by an immortal waiting for the right moment?"  
  
"Yeah, that'd make sense. That or just kind of losing track of an original mission?" I shrugged. "According to this, the Armory gathers artifacts and also goes for fairly unique _people_. Protecting special bloodlines or uniquely empowered people. Perhaps if you're a 'unique person' you might want to ensure other people like you get a chance to live? Seems they really wanted the Originals but had enough common sense not to try."  
  
"Think they'd trade Mikael or Rebekah for their siren?" Vicki asked.  
  
"They don't _control_ the siren according to this. I imagine they might let us go in and out for that, though." I considered. "Nah. If they're sensible enough not to try and capture the Originals already they're probably smart enough not to try and hold a Mikaelson body. Huh, or maybe the Mikaelsons would be happy with those two in the Armory? If the Armory protects important stuff, then they'd be a great place to leave your evil father or your spare human body."  
  
"Huh." Lauren smiled. "They'll totally want _us_ , won't they?"  
  
"Oh yeah." I nodded. "The Third Immortal and a new Siphoner. It might be best not to try and work with them."  
  
"I think we just Siphon the spell in this side, wait for the siren to get loose, then go and talk to her." Lauren nodded.  
  
"So..." I trailed off. "We do realize we're letting something that is best described as a literal demon serving literal Satan out, right? I mean, that's high on the list of things you don't do if you're a good person."  
  
"You want to destroy Hell, kill the Devil, and free the trapped souls there." Lauren stated. "We can't do that if we have almost no information _about_ Hell besides tidbits from people who lost to the sirens. We let her out, we work with her until the Thirteen are all in Hell, and _then_ we figure out how to destroy Hell using what we learned."  
  
"Okay." I nodded. "That's probably for the best."  
  
"Oh god, stop looking so sad!" Vicki shouted. "We drop pamphlets on the Armory telling them what we're about to do before we free the demon, okay!"  
  
"I approve of that." I smiled.  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I slept surrounded by a circle of candles as I projected my spirit into Esther's coma.  
  
"Jeff?" Esther looked up from a pile of heads that I had no desire to inspect.  
  
"Hi." I offered Esther a hand and pulled her up. "How goes being stuck in a magical coma?"  
  
"My sister remains as vindictive as ever," Esther explained.  
  
"What a surprise." I shook my head. "So, here's the big question, how do we speed up wiping out the remaining vampires on the planet?"  
  
"Is now truly the best time to ask that?" Esther asked.  
  
"I'm more than willing to stretch this out if I am sure you have control over the situation. It seems what is happening is the opposite of your having control over the situation. We can work together because we want so many of the same things." I stood still for a second and regained composure. "Do you need some help?"  
  
"I was expecting a threat," Esther sighed. "I suppose I do need help."  
  
"So, you remember the existence of Katerina Petrova?" I asked. "I've had a lot of time to look at grimoires the past few days, and I think I have a way to get you out of this coma and take control of your family. Interested?"  
  
Esther gave me a smile. "Absolutely."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
Markos was waiting with several Travelers outside of the Armory in Grove Hill.  
  
"Strange to see her alive," Markos gestured at Katherine, who had arrived ahead of us and was leaning against a Traveler truck. "When I was a young man I guarded the Anchor to the Other Side for a time, and some of us stared at her beautiful face every day."  
  
"Sounds romantic and creepy," Vicki snipped. Katherine smiled at Vicki.  
  
"Before we guarded her we all had to see what happened to an unprotected mind near her. They would tie a man near enough to her to be effected, far away enough he couldn't give her a drop of blood. The man would go insane within minutes, howling from visions and begging to be released to to feed her his blood. The victim was always decapitated to ensure safety." Markos sighed.  
  
"God, take some Lexapro." I said. "You are clearly in a bad head space."  
  
"All my dreams are dying before my eyes." Markos looked at me. "Over a thousand years and now my people have lost faith."  
  
"Not to be a dick about this, but you've been a dick about everything else so it's symmetrical." I smiled. " **Tell me if you are planning on betraying me**."  
  
"Of course not." Markos answered.  
  
"Don't be stupid." Lauren glared at me and waved her hand. In Lauren's hand the bone knife we had taken from Gerald burned with crimson light as she drew power from it. The Travelers fell to the ground. Lauren stepped forward and put her hand on Markos's head. I saw a red glow where Lauren's hand connected to Markos. "Ask again."  
  
" **Tell me if you are planning on betraying me**." I repeated. Looking around I saw that Katherine had wasted no time in bolting.  
  
"Arguably." Markos answered and winced.  
  
"Okay then." I nodded. " **Stop chanting**." I pointed at the Travelers that had come with Markos and they did.  
  
"You're getting better at that," Lauren said approvingly.  
  
" **Explain**." I compelled.  
  
"I seek to kill Amara and Silas, followed by the winnowing of the doppelganger lines and the use of their blood to destroy impure magic. I suspect you would survive but be weakened by the event and disapprove of the end state." Markos explained.  
  
"God damn it." Lauren shook her head.  
  
" **What don't you want me to know the most**?" I asked.  
  
Markos shuddered. "One of the splinter factions of my people simply seek to live in peace in this dimension. This faction would certainly make more reliable long term allies for you than my own."  
  
" **Do you actually have Amara**?" I asked.  
  
"Yes." Markos answered.  
  
"Alright. That's good." I paused and thought for a moment. " **Can we still make a trade you believe I would find reasonable**?"  
  
"Would you trade the Ascendant for Amara?" Markos asked.  
  
"Huh." I considered. "We only brought half of it. Bonnie and this woman you've probably never heard of named Caitlin Shane are holding onto the other half and Lauren looped a spell through it so we can use our half if we all work together. I mean, there's lots of good stuff in the Prison World, but I promised Katerina the body of Amara."  
  
"Would you consider helping me gain control over my people?" Markos asked.  
  
" **Tell me if you would consider joining with the peaceful faction you don't want me to know about**." I demanded.  
  
"Never. My people deserve better than that." Markos said through gritted teeth.  
  
" **Tell me if there is something that I could and would give you that you could say was a righteous trade for Amara when I take her that would help you save face**." I changed tactics.  
  
Markos smiled. "How hard would it be to teach us how to make our own mirror worlds like Lauren and the Gemini Coven have managed?"  
  
I looked at Lauren. "Honey?"  
  
"That makes me feel old." Lauren answered. "But um, it wouldn't be that hard for masters of group magic. You'd need to channel a celestial event, which means you'd need to do it inside a Prison World as Travelers can't channel nature like that, but there's no celestial events in the time loop. But yeah, you could do it if you had a talisman on Earth during a celestial event. Yeah, I can promise the Travelers that."  
  
"That would be extraordinarily helpful." Markos sighed. "It would fragment my people further, but if the cowards had one world and the faithful another then I might be able to sell a peace accord."  
  
"Okay. So, **is there any reason you would not use force to take Amara from you if you were in our position**?" I asked.  
  
Markos squirmed. "Fear of reprisal is a factor, but obviously you have grown stronger and craftier."  
  
"I made mistakes. Now I know better." I smiled. " **Now do your best to help us get Amara for ourselves**."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"Well this is neat." Vicki poked Amara's stone body. "Why don't we do that when we desiccate?" She asked Katherine.  
  
"Hello there, Amara." I patted the woman's head encouragingly.  
  
< **Help me**! >. I heard Amara's voice in my head. I saw Lauren was already cutting herself with the bone knife while both Vicki and Katherine's eyes and teeth had gone full-vampire mode.  
  
"Oh hell," I muttered. " **You two, ignore Amara and run to the Mystic Grill**." I instructed the vampires, who vanished. I fumbled for how to protect Lauren and remembered a scene from the Vampire Diaries and put my hands on her head." _Jaryakat a zem. Daryeet acza._ " I recited.  
  
"What the hell did you just do?" Lauren asked after a moment of black flaring in her eyes.  
  
"I um, made you a vessel for myself as a Passenger," I admitted. "It stopped Silas from compelling Matt. Something about someone else already being in your head."  
  
Feed me!> Amara's voice boomed in my head.  
  
"Shut up." Lauren smacked Amara. "Ow!" She shouted.  
  
"Don't try smacking stone." I suggested. "Amara, can you understand me?"  
  
Amara said after a moment.  
  
"He's loose. That's not important right now. Important thing is, you want to die. I can put another spirit inside your body, ending your consciousness. If it turns out I can wrangle Silas, we'll figure out how to use you as a bargaining chip. Either you stop being in agonizing physical and emotional pain, or you get cared for by your lover. I'm gonna do this no matter what, but it'll be a lot faster if you stay quiet. Understand?" I finished.  
  
<I understand.> Amara quieted down.  
  
"Alright then." I pulled the coffin beyond me. "Lauren, call Bonnie and Kol, we have a spell to do." I opened the u-haul and raised my hand to pull out the other coffin we'd needed.  
  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat opposite of Jeff and we held hands over Amara's body. In our hands was the Bennett talisman we used to access the real world. A dimension and thousands of miles away, Kol Mikaelson was pulling on his own talisman as he prepared to exploit the spell we used to transfer the Anchor of the Other Side from Amara. The unique spell would create an event Kol could channel to enhance his own powers and cure his mother.  
  
On Amara's throat I placed the moonstone used to bind Klaus's curse; Esther had used doppelganger blood from Tatia, reinforcing the connection with Amara.  
  
I put my cellphone on Amara's belly and kept it on speaker mode as Bonnie and Caitlin waited for us to start. Jeff and I placed vials of blood around Amara; Elena's, Katherine's, Rebekah's, Bonnie's and Stefan's blood were placed at the points of a pentagram. Two doppelgangers of Amara, one doppelganger of Silas, and one descendant of Qetsiyah. At Amara's feet was Rebekah's body, ready to become the new Anchor to the Other Side.  
  
Vicki and Katherine poured a circle of volcanic ash around us. We were ready. The only difficult part of this was transferring the spell that anchored the Other Side from Amara to a new body; the rest was simple spirit transfer and doing the spell slowly enough to make sure the others could use it properly.  
  
"Im A Pran Khos Suptia Jhem Ai Pada Khe Rassatam. Im A Pran Khos Suptia Jhem Ai Pada Khe Rassatam. Im A Pran Khos Suptia Jhem Ai Pada Khe Rassatam. Ai Pada Se Rassatam. Ai Pada Se Rassatam. Ai Pada Se Rassatam. Ai Pada Se Rassatam." Jeff and I recited. On the speaker phone Bonnie recited along with us. I heard the distant chanting on the other end of the phone as Caitlin drew on our spell to find her son's lost spirit. Wind whipped around us.  
  
<Thank you.> Amara's voice whispered into our heads. <I can feel it is gone.>  
  
Jeff put his hands onto Amara's head. "Thank you for your cooperation. See you soon if all goes well." Jeff whispered the Traveler incantation he had used on me an hour ago, and then slashed his wrist open and put it over Amara's mouth. I saw Amara's face turn from stone to flesh.  
  
I projected myself to New Orleans. Kol was doubled over in pain.  
  
"Why?" Kol asked.  
  
"I had a bargain with the witches in the Prison World," Esther explained. "They help me reclaim my family from the curse I had given them, and I help them escape from the prison they constructed for themselves. This is part of it."  
  
"I bloody rejected vampirism the first chance I got!" Kol shouted.  
  
"This isn't about you. Elijah has to understand he has no choice but to forsake his vampire body and let the race be purged," Esther looked at her son as if he was very stupid. "When you were linked Mikael and your siblings you were all vampires, and those bodies must be destroyed if we are to free the world of vampires."  
  
"Why the bloody hell is Rebekah being tortured if she's not even in her body?" Kol asked.  
  
"Rebekah must know that her new body is the only option. With Rebekah's old body the Anchor to the Other Side, she will feel every supernatural death like Amara before her. So long as the link lasts, you will feel that death as well."  
  
"You're going to destroy the Other Side as well as the vampires?" Kol asked. "Do you think you're a god? What about Nik and all the other people over there?"  
  
"I am only undoing what carelessness and malice has done, Kol." Esther explained. "Don't worry about Niklaus. I have a plan."  
  
Oh god. Esther had a plan. I flashed back to Jeff. "Hey, you ever wonder if we're the bad guys?" I asked.  
  
"Nah." Jeff said, his wrist still glued to Amara's face as Katherine filled her ravenous body. "We help a lot of people."


	20. Chapter 20

**Lauren**  
  
I sat in the waiting room of Francesca Correa while Jeff thumbed through a _People Magazine_ while trying to look like he belonged here and not like he was scratching himself with telekinesis whenever his suit itched. Jeff wanted to give an impression of respectability to the Correas, which he claimed were a family of latent werewolves who hid their potential and channeled their rage into being the vicious rulers of an organized crime syndicate.  
  
If the Travelers had not looted my Prison World's Armory of everything that looked valuable we might have avoided one of Jeff's ideas that relied on spoilers from a television show that existed only in his head. The Armory's list of acquisitions would have been scary enough even if the Travelers were the only faction I had to be concerned about, but after arguing for a couple days over the reliability of the Armory's records I had yielded to Jeff's concerns when he demonstrated one of the things the Travelers had _overlooked_ manifested an anti-magic field I failed to siphon and throwing another artifact in a small lake had created a wave of acid mist.  
  
"Mr. Wesley and Ms. Accola, Ms. Correa will see you now," A pretty male receptionist said and I got up a moment after Jeff did. The art on the walls and the scale of the security in the office was meant to intimidate me, but you needed a lot more to impress me these days.  
  
I dug into my pocket for a small bundle of sage. " _Incendia_ ," I said softly once Jeff closed the door, and we had a privacy spell.  
  
Inside the office a tall, tan woman sat in a massive chair at an expensive desk. I saw her eyes widen at the display of magic.  
  
"Hell, Ms. Guerrera," Jeff smiled at the woman once he smelled the burning sage. The woman flinched at the name her family had hidden from for generations. Once the Guerrera Pack had nearly ruled New Orleans, until Marcel Gerard slaughtered enough of them that the survivors had decided that hiding themselves as humans named Correa was the right call.  
  
"What is it you want?" Francesca asked.  
  
"Let's get this out of the way; I'm a powerful psychic with incomplete but very useful knowledge of a future that I have managed to change considerably. In the first go around, your family steals the first ever batch of Moonlight Rings to control their transformation, kill your bodyguards to become werewolves, and try to run the city until the Original Vampires murder you all in one night. I'm here to stop all of that from happening."  
  
" _Your_ Moonlight Rings?" Francesca asked cautiously. "The bag of talismans is how you got this meeting."  
  
"Not mine, I stole the design." Jeff shrugged. "The prototype's from Esther, the Original Witch. I guess you could say it wasn't the _first_ batch as she made one for her secret werewolf lover a thousand years ago, but that one's just for suppressing the transformation, not for bringing out the beast and associated superpowers."  
  
"I was not born yesterday, Mr. Wesley. You are going to a lot of trouble for this." Francesca smiled like a snake rather than a wolf.  
  
"You're untapped werewolves. What do you know of the creation of the vampire race?" Jeff asked.  
  
"I believe there was a holy tree the first vampires burned to the ground so they could live forever," Francesca frowned.  
  
"More or less. Big thing is, there's a spell the Original Witch cast on her children. One of those children was a latent werewolf. Niklaus's first human kill turned him into the Original Hybrid, stronger than his siblings until a curse was laid on him. All Original Vampire, all werewolf, free of danger from the sun or the moon." Jeff smiled. "Now, I could load a werewolf pack down with talismans to get an army, but how do you like the sound of living forever?"  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I leaned against Jeff and watched Vicki drink coffee in a New Orleans Starbucks; we had all agreed that if these people were going to build their city on a swamp the least we could do was stick to chains we recognized and avoid local flavor at all cost.  
  
"I'd say it went fairly well," I told Vicki. "Francesca hates vampires of course, but she's lived with the rage of a werewolf her whole life, so drinking blood appealed to her. Jeff offered to remove the heightened emotions from the package and she was on board."  
  
"She's actually _not_ thinking of betraying us at the first chance," Jeff added. "Sure she might do that anyway, but her mind was focused on ruling the city and uniting the werewolf packs."  
  
"I still say we can just get the siren ourselves," Vicki grumbled. "I did fine as an Original."  
  
"Of course you did. In all honesty it'd take us about a week to be sure you could rip right through the populated version of the Armory by yourself, _but_ I'd rather have a pack of very _expendable_ werewolves before the Travelers sort out their civil war or the Thirteen go on the offensive than put you in danger," Jeff argued.  
  
Vicki tried not to smile at Jeff's implication that she was not expendable. "So if the spinoff is set here, do we have another set of random crap to do in New Orleans before Kol decides he has to do something about us?"  
  
"Well, it looks like the O'Connell family is still fine in this timeline, no one cursed to madness yet." Jeff answered.  
  
"Who?" I asked.  
  
"Klaus's girlfriend, her twin brother, and their priest uncle. Believe me, pulling the last name from my memory was a bitch and a half." Jeff shrugged. "Old timeline, Father O'Connell protested against the New Orleans witches and their leaders considered a proportional response to be cursing his nephew with horrific madness that led to him slaughtering a bunch of his fellow seminary students and himself. It's not like, an objectively big deal, but it was memorable." Jeff elaborated.  
  
"Why did a single priest objecting to them rile up a coven that badly?" I asked.  
  
"Father O'Connell secretly leads the Human Faction, the people of New Orleans without supernatural powers who know the ones who do. The Founding Families of Mystic Falls writ large, so to speak. They're the ones who fake autopsies and threaten the vampires into keeping a low profile, that sort of thing."  
  
"Still not registering why witches would _care_." Vicki shrugged.  
  
"If the humans go to war it'd be ugly, even if they'd lose once the witches got their act together. There's a repository of magical artifacts held by the priest in case the supernatural community goes too far, but besides a few odds and ends it looks pretty tame after seeing the Armory's files." Jeff added.  
  
"You still on about that?" Vicki laughed.  
  
"The Armory had a watch that grants super speed like Emily's rings grant invincibility," Jeff muttered. "A piece of jewelry that can break an army, grimoires thought lost to history. To think if I'd just watched a bit more television I might've gotten to it before the Travelers did..." Jeff shook his head.  
  
"Anything _else_?" I asked to stop another round of this discussion.  
  
"Um, there's Vincent and Eva. Vincent um, god I don't want to try another memory dive for the last name, but they're married or dating. Powerful sacrificial magic practitioners. If neither one has gone crazy enough to start mass murdering children yet they might make useful allies in this timeline." Jeff answered. "I don't know if we should focus on this one given what we can get with the Guerreras, but there's also the Crescent Pack of werewolves that are cursed to be wolves when they should be human and human when they should be wolves. I haven't seen any sign the local covens are ready to sacrifice four teenagers for a year and bring them back with extra powers, but if that comes up we need to give them a _serious_ talk about the details of that particular situation."  
  
"Huh?" Vicki looked confused.  
  
"Okay, so the Harvest ritual is when they gather up four teenage girls and kill them. The girls go to the magical plane of the Ancestor Spirits, who teach them magic, and then the girls come back connected to the Ancestors and the Earth and everyone's happy. Various problems include no one having done it for centuries or being sure it'll work, lying to the sacrifices about the ritual, and a vampire warlord named Marcel showing up to try and stop them from doing it." Jeff explained.  
  
"I think you're overloading Vicki on the nerd shit," I poked Jeff.  
  
"Oh, you're right." Jeff sighed. "Long story short; New Orleans witches are crazy motherfuckers and I would rather not deal with them." Jeff paused. "Well, there's _one_ I want to deal with."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
"Do we have to act like pedophiles and hide under an invisibility spell in a high school?" I asked.  
  
"Well here's the thing; if Davina Claire is a happy, ordinary teenage witch without looming threats of human sacrifice I want to keep her that way. If Davina Claire appears like she would be much happier as a valued member of a powerful coven of outsiders then I want to offer that to her. I want a good look at her behavior without spooking her," Jeff answered.  
  
"We're still undercover in a girl's bathroom," I pointed out.  
  
"Look. Stalls." Jeff pointed. "Even in a boy's bathroom I've never seen someone swing it around with pride."  
  
"That's unfortunate," I sighed. "At least it's not a locker room."  
  
"As a homeschooled Boy Scout, when we went to locker rooms for swimming we'd all cluster around the toilet stall and change one at a time, besides me, who had taken swimming lessons." Jeff elaborated. "Aren't women the shy, delicate gender as a whole? Do you girls just swing your breasts around to try and impress each other or headbutt like deer in your locker rooms or do you just shower and change like you obviously do?"  
  
"It's still the principle of the thing." I argued. "Couldn't we have waited outside? It's summer, so it's not like the halls are packed when she shows up for summer piano lessons."  
  
"No." Jeff answered as Davina left the bathroom stall and washed her hands. "It was vitally important that we actually watch the door of the bathroom stall so she wouldn't escape. I totally didn't just forget that would've worked."  
  
"God damn it." I sighed.  
  
"Was your high school this grim?" Jeff asked.  
  
"It had the same feeling of being an industrial prison," I answered. "Our bathrooms were worse. This is mostly white, while ours were these kind of hospital green."  
  
We followed Davina out the door and to a waiting friend.  
  
"Ah, she's familiar. Monique um, something." Jeff gestured at the friend. "God damn it the French last names got put through a Latin woodchipper before they got English spellings. She went completely psycho on _The Originals._ "  
  
"Unfortunate." I nodded. "She doesn't look psycho." Monique was texting as she and Davina walked down the hallway. A blonde emerged from the end of the hall and started talking animatedly with Davina and Monique.  
  
"No idea about that one." Jeff pointed at the blonde.  
  
"Can we cut this spy mission short?" I asked. "I'm feeling grossed out from the bathroom adventure. Can we do um, almost anything else?"  
  
"Hm..." Jeff nodded. "Want to go into the swamp and hunt for a latent Crescent Werewolf?"  
  
I considered trudging through the swamp in the New Orleans heat and humidity. "Okay, we can stalk these teenagers and see if they're happy for another hour."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
**Wyld**  
  
"Just how much do you care about getting this Davina person?" Lauren asked. We waited in St. Anne's Church for Father O'Connell, who had RSVP'd our leaving a White Oak Stake in his bed and sticky note holding our cellphone number with remarkable grace. I wanted to read the man's mind to make sure we were not missing any important supernatural politics, and I thought I might be able to find the hoard of magical artifacts if I looked in his head.  
  
"Hm..." I hummed out loud. "Considerably more than my dream of world conquest. Considerably less than finding a way to contact my family back home. Oh, I wouldn't stab someone we're already working with in the back _just_ to get Davina on our side, but I'd be willing to spend a good deal of effort on it."  
  
"Do we really have to recruit another cute brunette?" Lauren asked. "It's enough to make a girl jealous."  
  
"Well, _if_ your jealousy is such that you really, really care about it we can drop this recruitment. But here's the thing: I trust Davina." I answered. "I trust Davina more than anyone we've had to work with. Davina beat Klaus on his own show. She's brave, magically powerful, and intelligent. I'm _really_ tired of deals where I have to throw Alice under the bus to pay Bob to save Charlie. Sure, an army of super-wolves is high on the list of things I'd like, but we're trying to recruit another batch of people who legally qualify as supervillains to fight people who are mildly worse. I want to be able to _actually_ sleep at night once all of this is over."  
  
"God damn it." Lauren sighed. "You're not making it easy to say 'no' about this."  
  
"Do you have to say 'no' instead of 'yes' on this?" I asked.  
  
"Well..." Lauren started, but stopped as Father O'Connell entered the sanctuary, looking exhausted.  
  
"Hello, Father." I said. "Thank you for meeting us on such short notice.  
  
"You gave me a death sentence." Father O'Connell said simply. "A weapon that can kill an Original Vampire is going to start a war if people here about it. I can't even burn it without picking a side."  
  
"It's not the only one," I assured him. "Besides, it's going to be useless pretty soon; the Originals are all going to die or be transformed shortly."  
  
"You need to explain everything," Father O'Connell frowned. "People keep dying in this city."  
  
"I can explain the vampire situation. Kol Mikaelson swallowed a magical cure for vampirism while he was linked to the surviving Original Vampires. All of them are currently human. I revived Esther, their witchy mother, and she's procrastinating on wiping out the vampire species, but we've already got over half by killing Klaus. A dead man's switch Esther put in her children killed all the vampires descended from Klaus's bloodline. The rest of them should be gone soon enough."  
  
" _Why_?" Father O'Connell asked with a burst of emotion, then he seemed to calm himself. "Please explain that again _slowly_."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"Alright!" Vicki held up a sharp looking knife. "Have I mentioned I love that you're a mind reader? Because I love that you're a mind reader."  
  
"And I love Prison Worlds copying everything," I laughed. ""No one will even have a reason to complain we took all this stuff. Be careful, there's a spell to activate all of these things and a spell to turn them off, but god only knows what condition they were in when the Human Faction stored them here. Imagine if something like the Rosary of Madness is active and you just touch it."  
  
"Point taken." Vicki sulked. "Aren't these mostly just batteries for Lauren's siphoning, anyway?"  
  
"Some of them. Others can just be channeled for power without harming the spells on them, and look around for shackle or chains, as those might bind the power of a witch if you use them right. Binding one of the Coven of Thirteen would be handy."  
  
"Got it." Vicki answered.  
  
"Got this." Lauren rolled in a shopping cart she had levitated up nearby stairs. "Friends with super strength, begin packing!"  
  
"Got it, boss lady. Girlfriend. But I repeat myself." I answered and began loading.  
  
"So..." Lauren watched us. "Can we take a vote on the Davina Claire situation?"  
  
"Well, fact is Stefan and Elena bolted back to Mystic Falls the second they got the chance, Katherine Pierce tried a Traveler cloaking spell and is trying to hide from us in a hospital in Idaho, Sheila and Bonnie are separately trying to figure out if the other one would be willing to help with a spell to take me down, and those are the people that we actually _helped_ recently." I started. "The only reason Jeremy and Jenna aren't on that list is they're protecting Matt for Vicki and that's not even a thing she asked them to do. Of the allies we've courted we're down to the Shanes and Esther, so excuse me if I want to try and open up some options."  
  
"In Lauren's defense, your idea of an 'option' is cute as a button and whenever you try to bring her up you talk like you have a crush on her," Vicki added.  
  
"I do not have a crush on Davina Claire." I insisted. "I'm just getting tired of all the bullshit from the local characters."  
  
"And you dragged us to New Orleans for a werewolf army and an anti-witch weapon. Yeah." Vicki rolled her eyes.  
  
"Do _you_ want to round up a siren's food by yourself?" I asked. "According to Gerald's notebook the last time a siren escaped it took at least fifty evil corpses to get her in fighting condition. If Lauren's still vetoing my idea we need a small army to get a siren active in a timely fashion."  
  
"Jeff, we're not going to compel a prison into giving us all the inmates on death row." Lauren sighed. "I don't think even Louisiana's government could cover _that_ up."  
  
"I said we could use Gitmo. If you lose all the people _there_ you assume some kind of super-terrorist threat, not monsters," I smiled.  
  
"No. We're _not_ risking the NSA on our ass. Even if we can be invincible we have _no_ idea what the feds are hiding if this is what the city fathers of New Orleans have for a rainy day!" Lauren pointed at the shopping cart we were filling with objects created with magic.  
  
"Hence we make Hybrids of werewolves and vampires, or at least enhanced werewolves, and use them for the hunt." I declared. "See! This is a rational course of action."  
  
The girls groaned in unison.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
I sat in a New Orleans prison world hotel room and eyed the phone while Jeff fed from my wrist. I felt a rush of endorphins as the blood left my body and fed my boyfriend, and he closed his eyes as he let down one of the walls he had been building since the day we met.  
  
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine." I recited, and Jeff broke contact. I sipped my glass of tea containing a few drops of Vicki's blood and felt my wrist heal.  
  
"Four worse than last time," Jeff whispered.  
  
"It's not a race," I reminded him.  
  
"You know that phone won't start connecting to the real world even if you keep staring at it, right?" Jeff asked. "That's not a spell we're close to."  
  
"My parents had a coven," I said. "I even had a few..." I paused. "...not friends, but people who would've come when I called."  
  
"Were you really that bad with people?" Jeff asked.  
  
"My kind of power scared people. Some loved it, some hated it, but none were comfortable with it. I know I've said they'll all think I'm possessed by the Thirteen, but you're right about needing people. Heck, with our luck I don't even care about trusting them; I just want people who might help us at _all_."  
  
"Are there spells that can prove you aren't a ghost possessing Lauren?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Yes, but none that couldn't be faked with enough power or skill. If one of the Thirteen was in my body, they'd have the power and if anyone needed the skill it would be them."  
  
"What about me?" Jeff asked. "Could I do something to prove you're who you say you are, or show up as someone unrelated to you so as not to trigger that fight?"  
  
"Before we captured Gerald I'd have said no way in hell. You're practically a vampire. Now..." I paused. "If my coven worked for Lucien Castle, and their vampire boss is dead, then why wouldn't they be receptive to someone like you?"  
  
"Are you really that freaked out by going after someone my visions consider reliable?" Jeff asked.  
  
I held still for a moment and looked at my healed wrist. "Let me talk to her, okay? How would you feel if I made no secret of admiring Tyler Lockwood's abs?"  
  
"He _is_ pretty hot." Jeff commented. "Like, if we're going down _that_ route there's worse picks out there."  
  
"Is _everything_ a joke with you?" I asked in a flash of annoyance.  
  
"I'm sorry." Jeff said. "But it kind of is, I guess? I joke about the things I care about. Sometimes I do it because I feel so comfortable with them losing them just seems funny. Other times it's because I'm scared and laughing about it makes it seem less horrible."  
  
"I'm sorry, too," I admitted. "You have a right to be like that. That one just freaked me out a little."  
  
"It's alright. Do you want like, a vow of loyalty or something?" Jeff asked. "That sounds like a joke, but it's really not. We haven't had a lot of talk about boundaries in this thing."  
  
"We just need a vacation from this war," I sighed. "Problem is, I don't think anyone is going to give us a truce so we can calm down and find out who we are as a couple."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
I followed Davina as she walked through a busy crowd with Monique, the blonde from school, and another small brunette. The four were all witches, and all of them except for Davina seemed fairly bored with the street fair while Davina giggled and seemed to be very interested in a youth playing a violin for the crowd.  
  
"Come on, Cassie; Tim's great at this!" Davina insisted to the formerly nameless brunette as I touched a talisman I'd soaked in Vicki's blood to power a spell that gave me vampire-like hearing.  
  
"Can't we just go to a normal concert?" Cassie asked with a tired voice.  
  
"Aunt Sophie will say she escorted us to this, but _actually_ chaperone us to a concert. This was better," Monique argued. "Do you want to decide if we ditch my aunt or watch her make out with a drunk security guard again?"  
  
"Yes!" The blond said and the other three glared her down.  
  
"Finally!" I heard someone right behind me and jumped. "It's almost like you don't want to be found or something."  
  
I whipped around and started siphoning from a necklace I had found that apparently cursed livestock. "It's called a cloaking spell." I held up my hand. "What do you want, Stefan?" I eyed the blond man.  
  
"Wrong." The man answered and pulled a cooler up into my face. "It's Silas." Silas pulled back the cooler's top and revealed a severed head was inside.  
  
"What the fuck?" I asked.  
  
"According to this really perky tour guide you bring gifts to witches if you want magic in New Orleans. I hope you didn't already have the head of your betrayer, but you're hard to shop for," Silas explained.  
  
"Wait, was that Mason Lockwood?" I asked.  
  
"Got it. Werewolf who thought Klaus was a better friend than you and your boyfriend. Did you know your cloaking spell actually _worked_? One of these gypsies who dug me up had to hear you were in New Orleans from one of the gypsies who are killing witches in the city." Silas shook his head. "If you want people to ask for your help you need to be easier to find."  
  
"You know, this is a bad time for this, but honestly you're giving me an excuse to avoid something anyway. So, Silas, want to buy me a drink and tell me what it is you want?"  
  
"Bah, drinks these days give me a headache, unless you want to share those delicious schoolgirls you were following? Ah, but you haven't taken the plunge yet, have you? So, want to know everything Qetsiyah's been doing and help me destroy the Other Side to stop her?" Silas asked.  
  
"Huh." I nodded. "Actually that would be very helpful."  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
"I got off the phone with your Aunt Alexis," Jeff reported. "She seemed really interested in a meeting."  
  
"Ooh, you got Alexis." I said. "She's a seer. If she's coming to meet with us that's a good sign. People will listen to her."  
  
"How's Davina?" Jeff asked. "I'm on my way to get you."  
  
"Um, about that." I gestured at Silas, who was drinking from the arm of a maid. "Something came up."  
  
"Huh." Jeff looked at his fellow immortal. "That's not Stefan."  
  
"Nope. Say hello to Silas." I explained.  
  
"Ah." Jeff shook his head. "Hello, Silas."  
  
"Oh wow." Silas broke contact with the maid. "I heard you were crazy, but _wow_. One peak in your head and I am wondering if I should just run."  
  
"Ah yes, another psychic." Jeff smiled. "Believe me, this isn't much better for me than it is for you."  
  
"So obviously I want Amara back." Silas explained. "Do that before you do _anything_ else. Then we can talk about defeating my ex-fiance."  
  
"I'm not entirely comfortable with releasing a completely insane, virtually invincible psychic into the general population," Jeff said. Then he smiled. "Yes, I get the irony; just because I believe this planet is an exact match for a television show I watched doesn't mean I'm as crazy as your girlfriend is after two thousand years of torture."  
  
"I was tortured for two thousand years and I'm fine!" Silas insisted. The maid he had been feeding from fell over from blood loss. "She's just going to be hungry."  
  
"Honestly there's reputation issues for selling out Katerina at the first convenient point," Jeff argued. "Besides, it's not like Amara's going anywhere. I think we should talk about our mutual interest in stopping Qetsiyah."  
  
"Your ex-fiance is by far the biggest threat to Amara, anyway," I pointed out. "Give her a chance and she'll get back to torturing her."  
  
"Huh. I see your point," Silas admitted. "So here's what I've gathered: there's a faction of Travelers serving me because they think I can make them immortal. I don't know where they got the idea but they seem really certain of it. I needed Qetsiyah's help even when I was a witch. So I'd really appreciate if you could sell being able to make them immortal as something you needed me for when we talk to these guys?"  
  
"That's an acceptable request." Jeff nodded.  
  
"Okay, so the big problem is that some gypsies decided to call my ex once they got onto your magical planet where they weren't cursed. After raiding different sources of magical knowledge and talking to Qetsiyah they figured out a spell that would bind them to the Earth and be pretty normal witches. In exchange for helping them, this spell was used to make a set of supernatural warriors that are hunting us." Silas explained.  
  
"Us?" I asked.  
  
"Me and Jeff, mostly. Also Amara. They're killing some witches and vampires for the Travelers who empowered them, but they're all on the lookout for immortals. It seems people bleed to death before they answer your questions about it when you show them their own intestines, and something was stuck in their heads so I couldn't read their minds, so I don't know the whole story. This huge blond guy I met in West Virginia was super strong, super fast, and immune to my compulsion. Not sure what he thought he could do when he caught me since I happen to be immortal, but I only got away because one of my gypsies thought I would bring him back if he died for me." Silas laughed.  
  
"Huh." Jeff was examining the maid and pouring some blood down her throat from a vial he'd had in his pocket.  
  
"Damn you're squeamish." Silas slapped Jeff on the back.  
  
"He's not lying," Jeff looked at me. "I can see it in his head. The man who was chasing him had superpowers. I'm guessing it's about time the Brotherhood showed up."  
  
"Man." Silas looked at Jeff. "They think if they kill you, they kill me? That's dumb."  
  
"That's what I remember from a source of information I would not classify as perfectly reliable," Jeff elaborated. "I was really hoping you wouldn't be able to read my mind this easily, really."  
  
"You're really bad at being a psychic witch." Silas countered. "Like, it almost makes me sad, seeing you waste so much potential. But then I remember you had my girlfriend possessed and stop caring."  
  
"We can fix that." Jeff snapped. "Lauren and I are stronger than Qetsiyah, so we can give Katherine a new immortal body."  
  
"It's not that easy. But sure, I can help you with that if you'll stop complaining about betraying Katherine." Silas suggested.  
  
"Cool." I smiled. "Where do we begin?"  
  
[hr][/hr]  
  
  
I needed a drink; since I was friends with Vicki Donovan and got a combination of vampire blood, bourbon, unidentified herbs and "things with an 'o' in them" instead.  
  
"What the hell did he do to you?" Vicki patted my head as I groaned.  
  
"He _talked_." Jeff explained as he poured human blood into a shot glass. "I can't believe that was only two hours."  
  
"Silas is the best educated witch I have ever met, and we now have a spell that would turn a vampire into an invincible creature superior to an ordinary immortal based on Silas's reconstructing the spell used on him from memory and looking at Esther's notes on vampires." I sighed. "Just, if you think _we're_ bad when it comes to nerd shit, run if Silas tries to talk to you about magic. Just _run_."  
  
"And I thought my day was bad," Vicki added. "You know what you don't want to do? Try and tail Kol Mikaelson when he keeps screaming in pain."  
  
"Did you learn anything?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Kol is on the phone with someone named Rory, who he seems afraid of. Elijah is off in Georgia trying to get Finn back into the family. Rebekah is trying to break some kind of spell that has nothing to do with the Anchor curse for reasons no one articulated, but Esther's giving the orders."  
  
"Remind me to find you better missions." Jeff said affectionately. "We need someone a bit more detail oriented for this assignment."  
  
"I am almost positive that Rory is female," Vicki said defensively. "Or maybe gay. Or maybe Kol is gay? He called Rory 'Darling' and 'Love' a lot."  
  
"Sounds like a waste of a good cloaking spell." I shook my head. "We worked hard on invisibility talismans."  
  
"So when are you seeing Davina Claire, tomorrow?" Vicki smiled at me with fang and I laughed.  
  
"Can we send Vicki to recruit Davina and let me follow a Mikaelson?" I asked hopefully.  
  
"Sure, why not?" Jeff closed his eyes. "I need a nap."


	21. Chapter 21

**Wyld**  
  
I watched Silas look through the grimoire collection that Lauren had inherited from Jonas Martin.  
  
"Is it just me or do witches keep getting dumber?" Silas asked.  
  
"The older the grimoire, the more chances it's had to be destroyed. If Jonas found a grimoire, it had to not be destroyed. Preserved grimoires were either protected by a powerful spell or actively preserved. Hence, if Jonas found an old grimoire the witch who wrote it was probably smarter." I explained.  
  
"I'm sorry; I got bored long before you got to your point." Silas tossed the grimoire to the floor. "I can't believe your girlfriend believed the 'soulmate' crap after listening to you talk."  
  
"Does it count as defending her taste if I defend myself?" I asked.  
  
"You know it was my people who figured out all of this, right?" Silas asked. "There weren't any spells before some psychics began astral projection and called people to Greece. I'm not going to learn anything from your books."  
  
"Are you saying no one has invented anything since then?" I asked.  
  
"Not much. You had a fire starter in India, a telekinetic in Japan, someone in North Africa who could read minds, and we all got together and realized that if we let out our power a little at a time we could learn to copy each other. My ex-fiance's family started stringing things together and figured out the more complex spells. Everything in here is just using what we learned back then. Biology, boundary, cloaking, divination..." Silas recited from the index. "...all of this shit is stuff we were experimenting on in my day. Only thing I don't get about this time is the werewolves, those are freaky."  
  
"You were locked in a cave for two thousand years. How sure are you that there's _nothing_ in these you can learn?" I asked. "Like, right now you see a bunch of things you understand. But what about hundreds of years of competition and refinement, or using things in situations you never encountered? Vampire fighting spells, or environmental survival spells come to mind."  
  
"Even if the spells would be neat, you're forgetting that I lost all my old powers? I can't cast spells anymore." Silas pointed out, sounding annoyed.  
  
"You have the brain of a very skilled and powerful witch, and I want as many magical options as possible." I explained. "We're going up against the great Qetsiyah, so any magical tricks you can add to my arsenal would be extremely helpful. Do you have a better way to spend your time?"  
  
"I could go off and destroy her allies." Silas reminded me.  
  
"Are we sure that's a good idea? I genuinely don't know. If there are Travelers of Qetsiyah's faction in New Orleans we can spy on them to learn about what she's trying to do. On the other hand, if she asks them to do something important it doesn't help if we _know_ about it if she's pulled something spectacular out of her ass." I rambled.  
  
"Hm. Yeah, I see why you'd want me to read all this crap. However, I don't give a damn about what you want so I think I'd prefer to just go kill gypsies." Silas said.  
  
"I suppose part of cooperation is knowing how to work together; alright. You go off and murder my enemies, I go and recruit more allies. Text me when you're done." I sighed. "I was really hoping to avoid being complicit in war crimes today, but I suppose that it was not meant to be."  
  
  
  
Josephine LaRue served as the chief representative of the Ancestors and leader of the collective might of the nine covens that lived in New Orleans. Lauren had pressed an argument that we should both go to meet her to look more respectable, though I was pretty sure she just wanted to avoid anyone meeting with Davina Claire.  
  
The two of us teleported into the front yard from our location in the Prison World. Information held by Father O'Connell had helped us find the place. A jogger stared at us with open mouthed astonishment and I waved merrily at him.  
  
"Poor guy," Lauren shrugged. "What's he gonna do, call the cops on teleporters?"  
  
"He might see a doctor," I suggested. I saw the old woman in charge of the Nine Covens walk out her front door with a controlled expression and waved at her.  
  
"May I ask what you are doing on my front lawn?" Josephine asked.  
  
"Ms. LaRue, we're witches named Jeff Foxworth and Lauren White. I'm a psychic who knows bits of the future. Along with my companion, we're deeply involved in the mess that is causing ripples that hit your people. We have come to apologize as much as we can." I explained.  
  
"You're a vampire," Josephine stated.  
  
"I'm a witch," I said.  
  
Josephine frowned and touched my forehead. "I was wrong. You're not quite a vampire, and you are a witch.  
  
"We come bearing gifts." Lauren added. Lauren knelt down and opened a cardboard box. "Two grimoires from the witches Emily Bennett and Esther Mikaelson, one quart of blood from the doppelganger Katerina Petrova, and one stake of White Oak from a tree mystically identical to the one used to create the Original Vampires."  
  
"Oh my." Josephine looked at the box.  
  
"I'm not going to pretend we didn't copy everything in those grimoires. We have more doppelganger blood and more stakes, but we felt it was a measure of good faith to share knowledge and power with you," I elaborated. "Contained in those grimoires are the recipes for powerful mystical talismans and the instructions for a few incredible spells."  
  
"Come inside, please. The neighbors will be confused." Josephine looked confused but not annoyed. I picked up the box and carried it into her house.  
  
  
"Fascinating." Josephine examined the Ascendant that Lauren had handed her. "You created this yourself, without Gemini help or instruction?"  
  
"I gained access to some notes on the process about a year ago and became curious," Lauren explained. "I knew the Gemini linked their lives and powers to that of their coven's leader, and my father is descended from Gemini apostates. I had no desire to rejoin my relatives, but my heritage was involved with the creation of a counterbalance to their leader's absolute power."  
  
"This is a key to an entire dimension you created," Josephine smiled. "You did that in a year?"  
  
"I did it in about two months." Lauren chuckled. "I didn't try using it until about nine months ago. My family was attacked by a group called the Coven of the Thirteen, who sought to possess my body and use it for their own devices. The Gemini created their mirror worlds to hold and preserve a tyrannical leader against his will, keeping him alive until he could be replaced. I was low on options, and wasn't sure suicide would actually work or if they'd just possess and resurrect my corpse, so transporting myself to a fresh Prison World was the best idea I had at the time."  
  
"Was Jeffrey with you at the time or did you meet him later?" Josephine asked and handed the Ascendant back to Lauren.  
  
"We believe I was caught in the Prison World's creation as I practiced another spell involving the Other Side at the same moment. We could be wrong on the particulars of that, but we know that both of us were transported to my approximate location in the Prison World's mirror of Virginia at the time," I said carefully. "The two of us met up and as fellow prisoners, cooperated to get out of it."  
  
"You contacted the Original Witch." Josephine sighed.  
  
"I am a seer. I knew her plans for revival, and we could touch the Other Side. With Esther's help we could leave. We had no other obvious path to escaping. Even reliable contact with Earth was tricky. The consequences were awful, but not necessarily worse than the timeline where we did not act." I explained.  
  
"You seriously believe that the chaos involving the Old Ones and the Travelers was justified?" Josephine looked shocked.  
  
"I am a very powerful seer. In the original timeline, Klaus broke a curse that had weakened him since shortly after he became a vampire. Klaus began forcible recruitment of werewolves and turned them into Hybrids of werewolf and vampire. This campaign led to massive losses of life at every step, culminating in Klaus's slaughter of most surviving Hybrids. Instead, Klaus is dead." I smiled. "I killed him myself."  
  
"Fair," Josephine smiled.  
  
"As much as I would prefer the Travelers not attacking, I doubt the loss of witch life is much worse for you than it would have been otherwise. In my visions the witches of the French Quarter attempted a Harvest ritual which was interrupted by Marcel Gerard. These witches were, bluntly, _idiots_ about this as they both publicized their plan to the other factions and mislead the Harvest Girls about the nature of the ritual. The four teenagers were told they would be pricked with a needle, and instead had their throats slit. Marcel interrupted this and managed to save one of the girls, who viewed him as a hero who saved her and tried to save her friends. Marcel used the girl to detect magical activity throughout the French Quarter and effectively ban it on pain of execution. Marcel is dead, also thanks to me, and hopefully you will manage to influence the French Quarter witches to ensure nothing quite so _insane_ happens if a Harvest is necessary." I smiled at the memory of the insanity involved with that plot.  
  
"You believe this." Josephine looked very worried. "I have some prophetic powers, but what you describe is a rare talent indeed."  
  
"I have my own limitations, but it has proven one of my best weapons." I assured her.  
  
"Beyond your apology and gifts, I would like you to tell me why you are coming to me so directly?" Josephine asked.  
  
"Primarily because we are all involved in the same mess, even if I caused most of it." Lauren admitted. "I was hoping your witches could help us sort out the Traveler situation and help us with the Coven of the Thirteen. I believe it would benefit New Orleans to have our help solving these problems, and we would benefit from your resources and support."  
  
"I can see why you think you have plenty to offer." Josephine glanced at the Ascendant. "Your track record is troubling, but you know that."  
  
"I admit, it's even more troubling than I have described. The reason for the Traveler surge is my personal mistakes." I added. "I attempted to negotiate with them, and they attacked ruthlessly. Only demands from the Coven of the Thirteen for Lauren's body and my peculiar nature as a pseudo-vampire saved us from complete death and defeat at their hands. Even now the Travelers have looted the mirror world for knowledge and power they are using to kill witches. I believe I have a responsibility to do what I can to mitigate or reverse the damage I have caused."  
  
"You are honest." Josephine looked at me. "At the least, you are honest about what you expect I may learn anyway."  
  
I smiled at the humor in Josephine's eyes. "I hold a few things private, but nothing I believe is relevant to the crisis at hand."  
  
"Collaboration with Travelers is punished by shunning from the New Orleans community of witches. Why would we accept you into our fold when you have already committed such a crime?" Josephine asked.  
  
"Oh come on!" Lauren snapped. "You know that if we work together you'll save lives and can gain almost anything you want from the deal. Stop jerking us around!"  
  
"You could use what we give you to do even more damage, if your decisions continue to be as flawed as you have described." Josephine gave Lauren a cool glare. "I know you cannot promise to put yourself under our authority, both due to your strong personality and your great power."  
  
"What do we have to do to ensure we can work together on our mutual problems?" I asked, placing a hand on Lauren's shoulder.  
  
"Oh, nothing." Josephine smiled again. "Accepting the help of two witches as powerful as the two of you is obviously the best choice for my people. You have come to me with honesty and sincerity. I simply want you both conscience of how precarious your situation is, given your recent history. There are those who will seek to undermine you out of fear and distrust. I must ask what exactly you want from me before we proceed."  
  
"In a perfect world?" I asked. "My oracular talents have given me a particular trust for a young witch named Davina Claire, and the chance to mentor her would be the first thing I would ask of you."  
  
Lauren shook her head. " _That_ is your number one priority?"  
  
"There are also two powerful but less trustworthy witches I'd like to speak to. I believe you know the couple with the first names Eva and Vincent?" I asked.  
  
"Vincent Griffith and Eva Sinclair?" Josephine looked surprised. "What makes you feel they are untrustworthy?"  
  
"In my visions they get into some very dark magic. I do not understand the full details and would much rather not raise suspicions based on crimes that haven't actually happened, but if I was given access to their assistance I would appreciate it. Outside of that, I have two allies currently striking at the Travelers, and information on their activities and cooperation on directly fighting off their attacks would only be logical. Access to any libraries you have on magic would be much appreciated, primarily so I can prepare for confronting the Thirteen. If you have any special tasks you would appreciate being handled I would gladly start that immediately." I rambled.  
  
"To be honest I didn't think we'd get this far." Lauren said. "So, recall how I am descended from the Gemini coven?" Lauren pulled a small coin from her pocket and held it out in front of her. "Are you aware of Siphoners?"  
  
Josephine frowned. "You have your own reserves of magic, and large ones."  
  
"Yes, from my mother's side. From my father's Gemini ancestry I inherited the power to siphon." Lauren admitted and she siphoned some magic from the talisman she had pulled out, causing a red glow. "If there are say, cursed objects that you have no use for, persistent spells that are no longer useful, or any similar sources of power that are of little value I would be able to put them to use safely."  
  
"There might be some curses I want lifted." Josephine admitted. "Would you be willing to split up? I can call the Claires and Griffiths for Jeffry to work with, while there are some experiments I would try with Lauren."  
  
"Alright." Lauren sighed. "You win. Davina Claire's all yours." She nodded at me.  
  
**Lauren**  
  
Vicki and Silas stormed into the abandoned house I'd selected as a rendezvous looking cheerful despite being covered in blood.  
  
"That had to be seventy Travelers, right?" Vicki asked Silas.  
  
"Not even close to that, but you did pretty good." Silas nodded and I saw a duffel bag that he was carrying that I had not noticed before. "Give the heads to Queen GILF to prove we can kill Travelers who piss her off, 'kay?"  
  
"Hopefully you attacked the right group and not like, the peace faction their leader bitched about." I smiled. "By the way, heads of enemies is a really nice gift."  
  
"Actually, they probably are 'bad guy' Travelers." Silas nodded. "I'm not sure why you would _care_ , but the Travelers mostly haunt Europe. Easier for them to blend in, there. If they're in New Orleans they're trespassing on witch land, and they've been killing witches lately."  
  
"If there were toddlers in the camp, Silas wiped my memory about it." Vicki added.  
  
"Good. Silas, we've had laws of war for a long time in my culture. We can't always stick to those, but we like to imagine our fights being clean and well marked ones where everyone wears uniforms if they are ready to kill and be killed and everyone else is left alone. I don't know about Ancient Greek warfare, but our idea of honor is framed around that."  
  
"You guys are a bunch of pussies," Silas answered. "Or maybe it's just Jeff rubbing off on you."  
  
"It's mostly Jeff," I admitted after a moment. "Maybe not the _idea_ of honor, but the way he thinks about it. I'm not sure if I'd have thought to ask if I hadn't met him."  
  
"I get it. When I met 'Mara I looked at things in a whole new light. Suddenly I was thinking about the future and I couldn't imagine one without her in it." Silas sighed. "You know how _that_ turned out."  
  
"You're only two-thousand years old and you're literally immortal. It could end with 'we had a bad time starting out but we spent a million years happy.' Jeff's mentioned that to me when we talked about how to deal with you." I replied.  
  
"Fuck." Silas said. "A million years? I can't even begin to process that, and I just spent two thousand years at the bottom of a hole. No one knows if magic can even last that long."  
  
"Jeff thinks it will," I said.  
  
"Ah, the 'jumpchain' he read. The font of incredible information that makes no sense outside of being super accurate." Silas shuddered. "What would you even _do_ with a million years?"  
  
"Get high?" Vicki had gotten bored with our conversation and sat down next to me. "Eat _all_ the chicken wing types? Ooh, think you could breed dogs that can talk?"  
  
"Assuming Jeff's my literal soulmate?" I asked. "We'd like, talk and raise a family and still not be bored after a million years of spawning baby witches."  
  
"Are you _really_ gonna just be the world's most boring couple forever?" Vicki sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder.  
  
"We could try swinging after a couple centuries." I suggested. "Maybe have murder parties after I become a vampire. Find someone pretty who deserves to die and really get our torture on."  
  
"Ooh." Vicki smiled. "Can I come?"  
  
"Stop teasing her." Silas suggested. "I'm pretty sure your boyfriend would vomit if you tried that."  
  
  
  
  
Francesca Guerrera and her brothers met with me at a McDonald's; their business suits and bodyguards looked delightfully out of place at the establishment I had selected. I activated a cloaking spell to hide our conversation after everyone was inside. Vicki had compelled the staff and customers not to notice anything unusual.  
  
"Where is Mr. Wesley?" Francesca asked. It took me a minute to remember we had used pseudonyms for that meeting.  
  
"My associate is working with our new allies. I am here to explain the full parameters of our deal," I told her. "You have to understand that if we give you power, then everything you do will reflect on my coven. We are not going to war with the witches of New Orleans."  
  
Francesca Guerrera frowned. "My family has been in New Orleans for centuries. Our rightful place is here."  
  
"The witches are bound here by their graveyards' being connected to the Ancestral Plane. They _can't_ leave. You'd be mildly inconvenienced by setting up elsewhere. The people I am already working with are behind the destruction of Niklaus's sire line, and working towards the destruction of _every_ sire line and the end of all vampires. Five Original Hybrids and a pack of lesser Hybrids will be able to start operations in any city without competition from vampires. You'd be _idiots_ to insist on doing so in the heart of witch territory." I insisted.  
  
Francesca looked very annoyed. "I was of the understanding we were entering an _alliance_ , not being recruited as servants. We can leave right now if you refuse to treat us with respect."  
  
"You aren't going to be servants, but I've been reading up on your family history. Werewolves have made several bids for control of this city. The world is about to become free of your number one predator once the vampires are wiped out. Your number two predator won't be leaving." I pointed out.  
  
"They will if we make them." Francesca argued.  
  
"Their dead will stay even if you drive out the living witches. Dead witches won't necessarily be as dangerous without living descendants, but they don't stop being witches just because they're dead. On certain times they can act or even rise from the dead on their own collective power." I explained. "You aren't a witch, and I am; I know this war won't end well for you if you start it."  
  
"The Mikaelsons thrived here." Francesca said.  
  
"They didn't war with the local witches when they didn't have to, either. They stayed here _because_ of the witches, I think. A group of witches that won't move just because the most powerful vampires in the world settled down are a useful resource for the Originals. Whenever they needed a spell they knew who to bribe or threaten. If we become allies, my new coven will provide you with all of that and more." I offered.  
  
"You're saying you would be willing to keep helping my family whenever we have a problem, _and_ give us vast power. Of course the unexpected catch you've already brought up is forcing us from our homeland. What else can I expect?" Francesca asked.  
  
"Fighting my enemies, but you already expected that. Seriously nasty witches, any of the Mikaelsons who break free of Esther's control, large groups of Travelers, a weird group of superpowered vampire hunters. There's a reason I want a couple of armies to help me." I elaborated.  
  
"Not too much to ask, for endless power and immortality." Francesca admitted.  
  
"If it helps, you're perhaps the best choice for the generals of this army, but not the _only_ choice." I pointed out. "All I need is a latent werewolf without a triggered curse to make into an Original, and then I can start making lesser Hybrids and spreading transformation control. You and your brothers are clearly a superior choice; there's five of you, you have the discipline and intelligence to hide your nature for generations, you're well connected in the business and criminal worlds, you're aware of the supernatural community. If I wanted someone easily controlled I would have sought out someone ignorant of their werewolf heritage. I would vastly prefer allies who can grow strong without hand holding."  
  
"Are there any other caveats?" Francesca asked.  
  
"I can't say for sure," I admitted after a moment's thought. "It has been a thousand years since anyone tried to make a new Original Vampire. I'm not even sure if that's the right term for what I'm turning you into, as the Originals were already produced. When Esther transformed her family there were a half a dozen unforeseen side effects. Obviously I will try to mitigate the weaknesses of Esther's process and add strengths, but there are risks and trade-offs no matter what I try. If there are choices to be made I will do my best to get your input on them, but explaining the technical details may not be possible and I may be constrained by different power sources and negotiations as I try to create my own version of an immortality spell."  
  
"That is understandable." Francesca nodded. "We have three candidates for activating our werewolf sides selected." She gestured to one of her brothers, who handed her a binder. "A repeat offender who molested children, a hitman, a mob boss in hiding. Your associate said the 'darkest souls' would work best?"  
  
"Ah, yes. I need the most evil people possible for a purpose unrelated to activating your werewolf genes, but they're going to die anyway so why not be efficient about it," I said. "It seems like good practice to find people who deserve to be killed anyway if we're going to do this, though."  
  
"It does take time to do it this way, but I understand the concern." Francesca nodded. "Can you share what you need the most evil souls _for_?"  
  
"Remember how some witches don't stop working to hurt you after they die? My enemies are particularly good at cheating death. I found what can be roughly described as a demon that eats evil souls, and the demon needs to be fed before she can be healthy enough to help." I explained.  
  
Francesca frowned hard. "You do realize my family is Catholic, right?"  
  
"You're already mobsters." I pointed out. "You'll find a way to justify this one. Besides, don't bad people _deserve_ to go to hell? That's what happens if a demon eats their souls."  
  
  
  
  
**Wyld**  
  
Lauren walked into the hotel room looking tired.  
  
"Anything I should know about the werewolves?" I asked.  
  
"They're still on board, but kind of freaked out by some of it," Lauren admitted. "Hello, Davina."  
  
"Hi." Davina looked up from her chair where she was reading Esther's grimoire. "You must be Lauren."  
  
"Perceptive," Lauren griped and sat down in my lap. "Is she everything you hoped for?"  
  
"She's a fast learner," I told Lauren. "We may need to hook her up to a stronger power source than her Ancestors, especially if we take her out of New Orleans."  
  
"All of my friends are here!" Davina squealed. "I'm not going anywhere, yet."  
  
"Ah." Lauren smiled. "You do like girls who shout at you."  
  
Davina looked a bit embarrassed. "I don't shout much."  
  
"Her anger is more snarky, simmering boil," I assured Lauren.  
  
Lauren scowled at me. "So, what have you got?"  
  
"Well, Eva and Vincent have no plans on murdering children, but both of them had class so they had to leave already. I'm pretty sure I found a spell for tactical non-verbal teleportation while testing Davina's skills."  
  
"Interesting." Lauren nodded sullenly.  
  
The window broke and glass went everywhere. I jumped to my feet as Davina and Lauren both started saying spells. I grabbed the package that'd broken through the window and jumped out of it in a second. Once I was away from the girls I pried the box open.  
  
The box contained a head. For a wild second I thought the head was Lauren's, but then I realized it was Esther Mikaelson's. In the box was a note. "We have rejected our mother's offer. Give us Rebekah."  
  
"Oh, Mikaelsons." I laughed.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note:** Lots of reasons for this hiatus, and you are not obligated to care.

**Wyld**

I showed Esther's head to Lauren. Davina sat in her chair quietly and watched us. "Courtesy of the Mikaelsons, their mom's head in a box and a threatening letter." I could not help but smile grimly despite being shaken. "It's a very Mikaelson thing, to make such a show of brutal force to try and cow your enemies."

"Yes it is," Lauren agreed. "Let me see the note, please?" She pulled it to her with a spurt of telekinesis. "We have rejected our mother's offer. Give us Rebekah." Lauren read aloud.

"We agree we're not giving the Mikaelsons their sister's body, right?" I asked.

"Is there a reason _not_ to kill Rebekah's body and wipe out most of them immediately?" Lauren asked.

"Well it'd kill Kol and Elijah. Finn and Rebekah would still be witches in stolen bodies. There's no way Kol's not the current Mikaelson MVP with the linking spell and his Cure suppressing their vampirism. We'd also slaughter all remaining vampires in the world, removing most of their potential allies. So um, I can't see a downside." I paused. "Your thoughts?"

"They have a backup plan, but it can't be half as dangerous as what they can do with an active Kol and vampiric minions," Lauren nodded. "Davina, your thoughts?"

"Be nice," I recited automatically at Lauren.

"Well..." Davina was clearly uncomfortable being put on the spot and kept looking away from Esther's head. "What do you need to bring back Klaus?"

"What?" Lauren asked.

"You'd need a ton of power, like a sacrifice, right?" Davina asked. "Ms. LaRue told me Jeff killed Klaus. You're sure there's a backup plan if the Mikaelsons die. Would Klaus's death have broken your linking spell?"

"Klaus was never linked to begin with," I said. "But it would've broken it if he'd been part of it anyway."

"Familial sacrifice," Lauren said thoughtfully. "Normally you need as much of the deceased's body as you can get, strong connections to the deceased, tons of power. Necromancy isn't my specialty, but if you had four siblings die that would provide a kick, especially if they can exploit the sire lines dying."

"Esther was a master of body swapping. I'd have jumped to a new body if I was hit by the Anchor curse. If Kol has studied her grimoire then he'll probably be in the body of another witch." I nodded. "Esther's written necromancy spells as well. Kol might not even be in his own body anymore. If all the Originals are outside of their old bodies right now then it'd be an acceptable risk to see if we killed Rebekah's old body."

"Can they break that linking spell without Rebekah's body?" Davina asked.

"Maybe, but it'd be very difficult and take time," I answered. "I used Rebekah's body to anchor it and linked the family with the blood of Elena Gilbert. Um, that's complicated, but Elena's blood is a useful agent in spells, and some of the blood was in all four surviving siblings at the time." I paused. "Oh! Also their father, Mikael. If they had the blood of all of them at the same time it might be possible, but it was one of my more intense spells."

"They might have saved some of Rebekah's blood, and Finn's. Probably none of Mikael's." Lauren commented. "We have to assume they've broken the spell until we confirm otherwise, but I really don't think it has happened."

"Confirming that's not overly hard." I pointed at Lauren. "It's implausible, but if they managed it we need to react accordingly. We've gotta check."

"You're going to see my mirror world," Lauren said to Davina after a moment of looking annoyed. "The last thing we need is to explain to your coven why we let you die in a hostage situation."

"One moment." I held out my hand to Lauren. "On that note, we need to get Vicki to a safer area."

"Yeah." Lauren held my hand and closed her eyes as she began a psychic shout directed at Vicki.

"Are you sure the mirror world is safe?" Davina asked.

"Huh." I frowned. "No, but it's a smaller risk and any hostiles in there are less likely to be working with the Mikaelsons."

[hr][/hr]

Vicki and Silas arrived at the edge of the room. "Come in," Lauren said to Vicki, and I poked a Vicki shaped exception in the ward so she could walk in without risking anyone else entering.

"What about me?" Silas asked.

"Dude, you think we trust you?" Vicki asked.

"I've been nothing but helpful." Silas pointed out.

"I'm another psychic and..." I paused for a moment, looked at Davina, and said " **Don't listen to me.** " I turned back to Silas. "I've seen your lunacy on a television show that may not exist. I want to get Amara back for you, but I'm not letting you run wild in the world Katherine's stuck in until we've made a deal with her."

"It's not exactly good for our reputation if we sellout people we made deals with the moment they stop being useful," Lauren added.

" **Stop ignoring me**." I compelled Davina and she blinked.

"What was that?" Davina asked me.

"If you stick with us they'll explain it to you, but trust me it takes a long time to understand it." Vicki cut in. "Ready to go to a slightly less hot New Orleans?"

"Ready." I said and Lauren pulled out her potion and began chanting. "Just step into the light," I told Davina.  
[hr][/hr]

Lauren and I investigated Rebekah's body while Davina and Vicki stood around. Vicki looked bored, Davina looked uncomfortable.

"She's still linked to the others," Lauren decided. "Well, if she's _not_ linked then they did something unbelievably tricky." She turned to Davina. "You have questions."

"Um, if Travelers have overrun this place, why did you leave Rebekah's body here?" Davina asked. "I mean, that's not a strong protection spell." Davina pointed at the chalk and salt circle we had around Rebekah's body.

"It's cloaked, but we keep having to move so we can't do anything _that_ sturdy to protect it," Lauren sounded defensive. "Anything else?"

"Is she alive or dead?" Davina asked after another second of looking uncomfortable.

"More dead than alive, but not all the way dead," I explained. "Vampire bodies are complicated, and can withstand a removed soul pretty well, but a lot of Rebekah's vampiric nature is suppressed by the link to Kol's cured body. She doesn't breathe or anything, but the link also keeps her from fully dying. If her soul returned to her body she'd get a bit more lively."

"Can we just kill her like anyone else?" Vicki asked.

"I'd use White Oak just to be sure, but I think the link to Kol makes her vulnerable anyway," I said. "I really didn't anticipate Kol using the cure when I linked them, so I'd probably do the full Dracula ritual. White Oak through the heart, cut off the head."

"Do you do this a lot?" Davina asked.

"Kill people?" I asked. "Not when I can avoid it, but Mikaelsons are a bit of a special case."

"Here in New Orleans we tell stories about the Mikaelsons, usually we call them the Old Ones," Davina said softly. "People say they ruled like kings before they disappeared while the city burned. Most of the stories are horrible."

"Young Padawan," I began. "I expect most of the stories you've heard are true. Then again, the Mikaelsons are also notorious liars. They've murdered, raped, stolen, tortured, betrayed and done every other crime you care to mention. The day I killed their brother he was threatening my life and the lives of everyone else in the vicinity."

"That's one way to put it," Lauren frowned at me.

"What does that mean?" Davina asked curiously. The girl's eyes were bright, eager; she deserved some truth.

"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to criticize the rest of us." I quoted.

" _Angela and Diabola,_ Jeff? _Really_?" Lauren asked. Vicki and Davina looked very confused.

"So we both read that as kids." I smiled. "Davina, no one's the villain of their own story. Well, not many at least. The Mikaelsons are victims. Esther turned them into vampires without warning or consent. The day I killed Niklaus I was possessing the body of an innocent and I only got so close to him because he had no idea who I really was."

"Bonnie is a bit of a bitch anyway," Vicki offered.

"It would be righteous to rid the world of vampires, in my estimation, Original and otherwise. Every vampire lives with heightened emotions and a terrible hunger for human blood. But..." I struggled to find the worlds. "It doesn't mean we're the good guys if we do it, or make someone else a bad guy for wanting to stop us."

"Hey!" Vicki looked annoyed.

"One of my best friends' is a vampire." I gestured at Vicki. "As it happens, she'd survive the vampire purge because she died and I brought her back already. I'm not going to kill her, and because of that, she'll probably kill people because her every instinct is rewired to make her into something dangerous."

"That's awful." Davina frowned.

"You know I've seen the future. I've seen your future." I said. "I've seen you make friends with vampires. I don't know how much Ms. LaRue told you about what I told her. Marcel Gerard would have saved your life, and I killed him when I killed Klaus."

"What my boyfriend is getting at is that life is really complicated, and he feels bad about it." Lauren cut me off. "We don't kill Vicki for the same reason almost no one spends all their money on charity. We can't make everything about doing the right thing, or else we'd go crazy and never do the right thing at all."

"Wow, way to make me feel like crap." Vicki snarled at Lauren.

"I'm in a bad mood," Lauren admitted readily.

"So if we're not going to kill Rebekah yet in case it plays into the Mikaelson plan, but the Mikaelsons are planning to get her back, what do you think you should do?" Davina asked me.

"Well..." I trailed off. "There's a way to make sure they can't bring back Klaus, if that's their plan."

"Really?" Lauren asked.

"What do you mean?" Vicki looked between us.

"He's talking about putting Klaus in another body so they can't access his spirit to bring him back as a fully powered Original." Lauren explained.

"Do you have a better idea?" I asked.

"Could we use one of the Human Faction's supply of Talismans?" Lauren asked.

"Talismans, like a Dark Object?" Davina asked.

"Object made through Dark Magic, so Dark Object, yeah." I nodded. But do any of them even work that way?"

"They don't have to," Lauren explained. "When I worked with Esther she sacrificed one talisman to make another. We just need to find one kind of like what we need and we can trap Klaus's spirit. Then we can kill Rebekah, destroying the vampires without worrying about having to fight Klaus again."

"Huh." I nodded again. "How long would it take?"

"I don't know." Lauren admitted after thinking for a minute.

"We can use my body," I began.

"No!" Lauren shouted. "We are not going with your half-backed plan that risks putting Klaus's soul into one of the strongest creatures on Earth."

"We can keep it dormant," I said. "My spirit's far stronger than his. We just need a spell to keep two spirits in one body with the host's spirit in charge instead of the invader. You can't say we can't do that."

"Vicki!" Lauren whirled on the brunette vampire. "You _know_ that this is a hundred times safer if we experiment on you instead, right?"

"Hell no!" Vicki shouted.

Lauren looked surprised. "What?"

"I'm not letting Klaus Mikaelson ride around in _my_ body," Vicki insisted. "Screw that. Jeff's game, but I'm _not_. Every time you try and use body swaps something new and horrible happens. I'm out."

"I'll do it," Davina said.

"Really?" I asked.

"You said the vampires are dangerous. People are going to keep dying if you don't win, right?"

"Jeff..." Lauren gave me a look.

" **Tell me your real feelings on this**." I compelled Davina.

"I'm scared and I think I'm in less danger if you trust me, and this seems like the best way to get you to trust me." Davina answered and gave a shudder. "I hate when you do that."

"Well." Lauren grinned. "I think this is a good idea."

"Lauren..." I shook my head.

"She's up for it and she's about as dangerous as a baby compared to what you are. Do you want to betray Vicki and make her think she agreed?" Lauren asked. "Maybe spend precious time hunting down a Traveler you wouldn't feel _guilty_ about compelling?"

"Guys, this is _insane_." Vicki glared at Lauren and then at me. "You put Klaus in a body, and he's gonna take it over. Sure, maybe you can cast a spell to keep it from happening naturally, but do you think that'll slow down Esther or Kol when they do something crazy? This is not going to stop Klaus."

"Vicki, time for _your_ idea." I said.

"We talk to Esther," Vicki answered. A vein was throbbing in Vicki's forehead and I doubted she had ever looked more stressed, possibly besides the time I had seen her being tortured. "We still don't know why her children really killed her."

"She is a witness to her own murder." I pondered.

"Can we put Klaus's soul in Davina anyway?" Lauren asked.

"Be. Nice." I hissed. Clearly I had made a mistake in anticipating Lauren's reaction to Davina.

**Lauren**

I drummed on Esther's head as Jeff drew symbols in salt and chalk. Davina and Vicki were off getting herbs for the spell.

"I wonder if they did something to Esther's ghost," I asked conversationally.

"You know, you're really mad lately," Jeff said.

"Wow, you must be _psychic_." I continued the morbid drumming on Esther's head.

"We can dump Davina when we get back to Earth," Jeff offered. "I didn't realize how badly this was hurting you."

"It wasn't hurting me until we got her in the group." I paused. "Now she feels like a threat. I wasn't exactly in the best mood anyway. Attacking your pet Sabrina makes me feel better."

"Sabrina's a blonde like you..." Jeff swallowed. "Not the point."

"Not at all," I agreed.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better _generally_?" Jeff asked cautiously. "I mean, it's obvious we can rid you of particular enemies and annoyances, but I think some of the problem is that so much has built up lately."

"Well," I muttered. "We could kill off the Mikaelsons. If we ended our vampire problem we could focus on more important things."

"You know if we want to kill the Mikaelsons the last thing we want to do is keep working with Esther," Jeff pointed out. "She wants her family _alive_."

"You don't think she'll learn better after decapitation?" I asked, then I sighed. "She won't learn _any_ better from this."

"What is being murdered to the Original Witch? She's been dead most of the last thousand years. She wants to punish, persuade, and manipulate her children into some semblance of a family. If the coven of Jeff and Lauren get slaughtered along the way, what's it to her?" Jeff ranted. I was not the only one who was angry today.

"Do you think they can kill us at this point?" I asked.

"Definitely," Jeff answered. "I trust your instincts, but I've also watched a show called _The Originals_ for two seasons. They may be cowards, but they're ruthless and insightful. Perhaps not as resourceful as the teenagers of Mystic Falls, but problematic none the less."

"Can Esther keep them well-behaved, if we help her win?" I wondered.

"She's insane." Jeff paced. "Damn that bitch. We don't owe her _this_. We could have crawled out of the Prison World without her, eventually."

"We didn't, though." I sighed. "Esther's one of the only people we've worked with who doesn't have reason to murder us, yet. Kill Rebekah's body, let the Other Side collapse, rid the world of vampires, and we've only solved about half our problems. Why would a siren help us win against the Coven of the Thirteen if that's how we fulfill our debts?"

"Can't we just point out Esther is a _bitch_?" Jeff asked. "We brought Bonnie's grandmother back from the dead even if I am to blame for killing her, and we even cured her of being a vampire! We helped the Shanes, we made Katherine immortal, we put Damon in Finn's body! Can't we take a hit to our credibility and break it off with Esther?"

"We're back." Vicki showed up with Davina in her arms. "There's a lot more herbs in New Orleans than I expected. How did finding Katherine go?"

"I did a tracking spell while you were with Esther, and unless it's being spoofed she's in _Anchorage_ , _Alaska_ ," Jeff hissed. "I have half a mind to let Silas in here to track her down himself and ask her nicely to come back."

"I wonder how frozen the coast is in the Prison World," I mused. "She might be able to walk to Russia some parts of the year as an Immortal."

"That's all we need; Katherine Pierce riding Amara's body into Eurasia when Silas wants a deal." Jeff stomped his foot.

"C'mon, one disaster at a time, please. Please?" Vicki's eyes were a bit bloodshot; something to worry about later.

"Don't worry." I suddenly giggled. "Everything's going to work out."

"You're in a good mood all of a sudden." Jeff frowned at me. "You just had an idea."

"As a matter of fact I did." I nodded. "We give the Mikaelsons Rebekah's body."

"What?" Jeff asked.

"The Mikaelson children demanded the body. Obviously they need to get to it. Rebekah's body is in the Prison World. We let them inside and shut the door on them." I explained.

"They'll never go for it." Jeff frowned. "No way."

"Not if we tell them, but don't you think they're scheming about how to get someone into the Prison World if we don't cooperate? They _need_ Rebekah to break the linking spell; until that spell's broken they are vulnerable." I paused. "Actually, I know exactly how we get them to go in."

[hr][/hr]

 

Jeff and Davina forged a connection between me and Esther and I saw through her eyes. Esther was staring mournfully at a small redheaded woman I failed to recognize.

"Oh," Esther said after a moment's confusion. "Hello, Lauren."

"You died again. Someone gave us your head and demanded Rebekah's body. Was someone trying to get us fighting your children or did the obvious thing happen?" I asked.

"Freya," Esther answered simply.

I thought for a moment. "The kid you gave to your sister to raise? Weren't you off on a crusade to rescue her?"

"I succeeded," Esther explained. "Rebekah broke her out of her sleep for a time with the a mighty spell and the sacrifice of a vampire. Freya turned her siblings against me and executed me hours ago."

"Ah." I answered. I considered for a moment that Jeff and Esther had agreed to link the Mikaelsons to feel the agony of every supernatural death in the world as a control tactic, but decided not to bring it up. "Do we give them Rebekah's body?"

"Of course not." Esther pointed to the small woman she had been stalking. "She's happy again like that! If she gets her old body again my children will break the linking spell and return to their lives of vampirism."

"Ah, so that is where Rebekah's soul ended up." I examined the small woman. "Who is she possessing?"

"A deeply flawed candidate," Esther answered. "Ms. MacLachlan was an untapped druid in Scotland. Her coven has the practice of giving their second child up for adoption and then kidnapping them for sacrifice on their sixteenth birthday."

"Unsettling." I nodded. "What did she do?"

"Do?" Esther stared for a long moment. "Don't try to make me feel guilty for what must be done to save my family."

"As a matter of fact that _is_ bugging me. If we used the link and killed them now we'd rid the world of almost every vampire and tear a hole in whatever war effort they're preparing against us. It would save a lot of lives if we ended it tonight." I said.

"No." Esther said simply. "I'm not giving up on my children and you _owe me_ , Lauren. You are going to bring me back to life and we are going to take over where I left off."

"What's to stop them from killing you again?" I asked. "Got some ingenious plan this time?"

"I have watched my children for a thousand years on the Other Side. I raised all of them and gave birth seven times. I will save them with or without you."

"My God, you're _serious._ " I frowned. "You really don't think you need my help."

"It will be much faster if we can continue working together. Move against me and even your invincible boyfriend won't be able to save you." Esther answered.

"Damn it." I shook my head. "Things will only get worse from here if your children survive."

"I raised them well." Esther smiled. "They are good tacticians."

"If you say so," I sighed. "Try to be in Lafayette Cemetery at midnight so we can raise you more easily." I paused. "Are you up for hearing my idea of a plan?"

[hr][/hr]

"So basically, we need you to tell the Mikaelsons you stole the Ascendant and a potion to activate it from us and you need their help to get Amara," Jeff explained to Silas.

"Interesting." Silas nodded. "So you're going to let me chase my girlfriend and the psycho who is possessing my girlfriend's body through the magical purgatory dimension you created. How do I know you won't just trap me in there?"

"Do you care?" Jeff asked. "It's the size of a planet and Amara's in there. Hospitals are full of blood that refills every day. DVDs work and there aren't any crowds or lines. Also, the Ascendant will be on the same end as you are."

"Why won't the Mikaelsons just break out once they have Rebekah?" Silas asked.

"That's Esther's job." I smiled. "She _wants_ her family stuck with her. She just needs to hold onto it." A few Dark Objects found in New Orleans, some White Oak and Doppelganger Blood, and a spell on the Ascendant had ensured that Esther would be able to win that encounter when the time came; her children could not have predicted everything we had prepared for them.

"They won't all go," Silas mused. "I'm not psychic enough to get them to do _that_."

"They'll have to send Kol and Freya in to break the spell on Rebekah. The spell is too big, too dangerous to them to try and half-ass it by only sending one of them. Finn's not part of the group, and you can get Elijah to follow along," Jeff explained. "That's assuming they don't need to bring Rebekah's spirit along, which they well might depending on their exact plan.

"Why would he be that dumb?" Silas asked.

"One," Jeff lifted a finger, "It's his nature to be dumb;" He lifted a second finger; "Two, you're going to tell him that Katerina is in Amara's body and you're off to rescue Amara. Elijah's in love with the ghost inside your girlfriend when he's not trying to kill her."

"You're suggesting I take a road trip with Captain Suit and screw up my chances of getting my girlfriend back?" Silas glared at me.

"I made a deal with Katherine that she could have an Immortal body. You want to sign up with me, _you_ make a pitch to her." Jeff smiled. "The last time someone hunted her she ran for five centuries. I think it will be faster if you two work together."

"So we have Freya and Kol and Elijah in your world until they figure out how to break out. What if they don't bring Rebekah?" Silas looked at me. "She's not skilled at magic and doesn't have a reason to follow us if they don't need her ghost yet."

"What about her?" I asked. "She's not a skilled witch, not an Original Vampire, and sure as hell not a brilliant strategist."

"Isn't underestimating Mikaelsons like, the easiest way to get killed in _The Vampire Diaries_?" Silas used air quotes around the series title.

"Yes, but Rebekah's track record of brilliant wins is _sketchy_." Jeff answered. "She's the most desperate of them to find some form of self-actualization. If we have to leave one in the same dimension as I am she's easily my first choice."

"Finn is also not on our radar, unless Freya's made a last minute deal since she woke up." I added. "I doubt Finn and Rebekah working together is particularly dangerous, either. If you can, get Rebekah to come, but don't worry if she's the one they're reserving."

"Okay." Silas eyed the pack. "Why don't you think I'm going to mess this up for you again."

"We think we've narrowed the things that can go wrong down to about a million." I shrugged. "They're witches who want to get to the same place you want to go. Once you bring them the Ascendant and a blood potion they'll owe you a favor. You're not a witch anymore, so you need a witch to help you. Why would you screw around when this gets you everything you want?"

"I guess I can work with this." Silas sped off.

"Besides," I said to Jeff. "So what if he tells them everything? They still need to go to the Prison World to get Rebekah." The two of us chuckled to each other.

**Wyld**

In my experience it is very rare for a plan to actually _work_ without unleashing more unintended problems and side effects, but so far as I could tell everything was fine. The Ascendant was in Esther's magical possession, Rebekah had gone with Freya, Elijah and Kol into the Prison World in order to return to her true body, and Esther sent a telepathic message to report she didn't need our help. For now things were working out just fine.

I sat in the U-Haul full of grimoires and general "stuff" I had gathered with Lauren; we had carried it into a parking garage controlled by the Guerrera-Slash-Correa family under the assumption they'd be nervous about selling us out. Vicki played with her sword while I cast a handful of cloaking and boundary spells to account for the change in location. Lauren was dropping Davina off with her coven and asking about arrangements for our journey back to Virginia.

"So," Vicki said after I was done with my spells, "We're after um, I think they're called the Empty Chair? Whatever people Lauren hates."

"The Coven of the Thirteen, the Empty Chair, or the Immortal Family are all names I heard for them." I shrugged. "Honestly they weren't in the television shows I watched and I might have created them without meaning to when I filled out my jumpchain."

"Oh yeah, _drawbacks_." Vicki nodded. "I remember you talked about how we were stuck in the Prison World and everyone was trying to kill us because you wanted more jumpchain powers."

" _Wanted_ is a strong word." I frowned. "Remember I didn't think this would _happen_. But yeah. In order to survive in The Vampire Diaries I thought I had to be immortal, and you can't do that with a normal power budget. It takes two thousand points to be a True Immortal and a fully powered witch, plus four hundred for a soulmate, and you only start with one thousand."

"So you got more points for being hunted by Lauren's enemies." Vicki nodded.

"Actually, Lauren got those points. We don't have the same drawbacks," I said after a moment's thought. "It's been a while since I did the game."

"If you say so," Vicki said after a moment of looking annoyed. "So like, does this mean..." Vicki shook her head. "Never mind, I don't care. We have to fight these guys anyway, right? Doesn't matter if you overly complicated your nerding out."

"It _shouldn't_ matter," I said after a moment's thought. "I don't think there's anything about a drawback that says you can't have help when you solve it or anything like that. I just wanted Lauren to have the best powers and there were fiddly bits with the rules you don't actually care about that made her build different."

"I've been meaning to ask you something," Vicki said quietly. "If the jumpchain thing is real, what exactly does that mean for me?"

"I don't know." I sighed. "Remember, going by the normal rules it's more like _It's a Wonderful Life_ where you talk to an angel who explains what is happening. If I happen to talk to someone at the end of this, supposedly after ten years, I'm going to ask about taking people with me. I remember that some people used really strict rules for taking companions along and some people thought those were dumb and ignored them; if some random deity or demon is using the jumpchain as a baseline for how to mess with me then I don't know what they'd do about you."

"Can't you just pretend to know everything again?" Vicki sighed and threw her sword into the cement wall of the parking garage.

"I'm almost out of things to pretend to know everything about," I admitted. "Besides, would you want to never see Matt again? If we go into another story, like Star Wars or something, we couldn't just go back home for visits."

"I mean, what's the _point_ of going to Star Wars?" Vicki asked. "I mean sure, fight Darth Vader, become a Jedi I guess, but why is it a _chain_ of jumps if you're already this strong? Can't you get anything you want already?"

"Good questions." I nodded. "So right now, I'm maybe the strongest creature in the world by a fair amount. I'm the strongest witch besides Lauren, and I am virtually impossible to kill. With me so far?" I asked.

"Duh." Vicki snipped.

"Now, we've dealt with strong people before. Does it really matter if Lauren and I are the strongest witches if we're dealing with an entire coven of witches who are _strong_? We've spent nearly a year dealing with Travelers and Mikaelsons. Life is hard and stressful. Now, let's say we go to Star Wars; how many witches are in Star Wars?"

"Like, zero?" Vicki asked. "Is that a trick question?"

"There's weird force users who are kind of witches, but those aren't like Bonnie and Esther. Think about it like this, if I go to Star Wars with the jumpchain I could be a Jedi _and_ a witch. The second time you jump you're going to be weirder to the locals than the first time you jump. If I have control over where I jump, I can go to places that would grant me more strength without having as much risk."

"That sounds like a big if, since you didn't have much choice about coming here." Vicki smiled.

" _Yes_." I breathed. "Right now I'm in something _shaped like_ a writing prompt about what you do with getting power, but I don't know what I can control if I do it again. Like, Star Wars might be a bad example; imagine if I could go and be _Superman_."

"Wow." Vicki said after a moment. "Yeah, I've seen cartoons and movies; Matty watches Smallville sometimes. Is there a jumpchain for that?"

"There are a lot of jumpchains. I know there was one for at least one Superman cartoon. Let's even say that it'd be too hard to be Superman, that you'd need to take drawbacks as dangerous as the Prison World to do that; what if you could be a mad scientist like Lex Luthor instead?"

"So I get it now," Vicki said thoughtfully. "You aren't sticking around here if you could get _that_."

"How could I?" I laughed. "Imagine if I could go to a second jump and become able to solve world hunger with science. Then for a third jump, what about becoming like Sherlock Holmes? I'd be an immortal witch mad scientist detective, and I've gone into a world where no one else is like that. No alien invasions to worry about like Lex Luthor and Superman do, no Original Vampires to worry about like we have to in this setting. The premise of a _chain_ of jumps is all about mixing and matching like that to do what you want."

"So you're just dumping me if you get the chance." Vicki said.

"Um..." I found myself caught. "Wouldn't you?"

"Huh." Vicki frowned at that.

"Think about it. Think about adventures you saw on cartoons as a little girl. What's your biggest escapist fantasy, Vicki? There's jumpchains for medical dramas or Hollywood millionaires, ones where you can meet your own soulmate, ones where you can become a wizard or James Bond; what would you do?"

"So you're just going to leave _Lauren_?" Vicki asked.

"I bought her with the jumpchain powers. I think she's coming if that's real." I paused. "If it was a choice, her or going on..."

"You wouldn't leave her." Vicki cut me off. "You'd stick in this crappy world for her, but not for _me_ , right?"

"I didn't say that." I muttered. "Vicki, you..."

"I can't take it anymore!" Vicki shouted. "You two have been bitching at me like some kind of burden or pet who is half an inch from murdering everyone and you can't even lie about wanting me around anymore. Screw you too!" Vicki disappeared in a blur of super speed.

"Shit." I said to the empty U-Haul.


	23. Chapter 23

**Lauren**

_"I got a demon in my soul and a voice in my head/It's saying go, go, go! I can sleep when I'm dead."_ Every bar in New Orleans seemed to play blues music, but this one was playing Halestorm. Vicki might have been cloaked from tracking spells, but she was not a subtle vampire.

 _"There's a sonic revelation bringing me to my knees/And there's a man down below who needs my sympathy."_ I stepped over a headless corpse and read the sign saying "Rousseu's." Vicki looked up from another body and another head fell off from the force of her pulling back.

"You've been a busy girl," I gestured at the bar.

 _"I got a ringing in my ears getting ready to burst/Screaming 'hallelujah, motherfucker take me to church."_ Broken windows, smashed bar stools, and a dead band were not a pretty sight, not that I was one to judge.

"Stefan wiped out a whole mining camp once. This is what, four?" Vicki leaned back.

"This is all you needed to flip your humanity switch, Vicki?" I asked. "And I'm counting eight bodies."

We glared at each other as the music went on. "I _like it louder than the boom of a big bass drum/I need it harder than the sound of guitar grunge/I like to crank it up, make it thump, I'm evil to the core/ Headbanging in the pit and throwing my horns."_

"I didn't flip my switch, dude. The band wouldn't _stop_ with their New Orleans shit. I needed to put in my iPod." Vicki gestured at the stand where her music player was hooked up to a stereo system I was surprised to see had no blood on it.

"You massacred a Best Buy, Vicki." I shook my head. "New Orleans witches _matter_. We can't just murder the locals."

Vicki started twirling to the music as it began repeating variations of " _I like it heavy_." "So what?" She asked. "The dude grabbed my ass."

I clenched my fist and the stereo exploded in a shower of sparks that made me feel a bit better. "We can't just bring people back if they're humans; only supernaturals go to the Other Side. These people are _dead_." I shook my head. "What the hell did you _take_ today?"

"Hell if I know." Vicki spat blood on the ground. "Better customer service on the street corner then in the Best Buy, so he kept his spleen."

"You didn't have to prove us right just because you were pissed at us." I argued.

"You didn't have to piss me off just because you felt like shit," Vicki countered.

"I'd ask you to come home with me, but I have no clue where that is anymore. Want to run with me far enough that witches won't be ready to kill us, though?" I asked.

"Seriously?" Vicki asked. "What part of 'I need some space' isn't written in blood on the walls? You juiced me up enough I'm not gonna die to locals, right?"

"You wanna risk fighting a coven that just lost most of their old vampire problem and isn't keen on letting new ones setup shop?" I asked.

"Sounds better than being stuck in a car with you and your boyfriend for another couple days." Vicki groaned. "You got a hangover cure spell?"

 _"Vous n'êtes plus saoul._ " I said and waved my hand.

Vicki shook her head. "Seriously, you _do_? What the fuck, man."

"You'd be surprised how many witches had to deal with husbands who tried to drink themselves to death." I shrugged. "People complain about Prozac and forget that it used to be whiskey."

"Lots of people still like getting drunk." Vicki sighed. "I actually feel a lot better."

"You can be mad at me again in the Carolinas." I ordered.

"Seriously?" Vicki pointed at a headless body. "You really think we're doing this?"

" _Sul opraem chele kouzlo."_ I muttered the Traveler spell. "Now you're Daylight Ring won't work. Want to run around New Orleans like that?"

"You're a bitch." Vicki sighed. "Okay, I'm coming with you." She was a blur of motion and stood next to me. "But I'm gonna be complaining the _whole_ drive."

"I'm looking forward to it." I lifted my hand. " _Invisique._ " We became invisible. "Follow me. Jeff's waiting."

**Wyld**

I watched the fuming girls enter the van. "Rough night?" I asked.

"Suck a dick," Vicki muttered.

"Haven't found a spell to give Lauren one and she'd _freak_ if I asked Jeremy." I responded.

"Not. Now." Lauren hissed.

"I don't come with an off switch," I explained.

"I could snap your neck," Lauren suggested. "It takes you a bit of time to sit back up."

"I guess I lied about having an off switch." I sat in the back across from Vicki while Lauren started backing out of street parking and changed the subject. "I called your coven mate, Alexis, and told her we can't meet her in New Orleans. She told us she was waiting in Atlanta."

"Real precognition is bullshit," Lauren laughed.

"Who the hell is Alexis?" Vicki asked.

Lauren answered. "My dad's cousin or something, I'd need a family tree in front of me to tell you exactly how we're related. If my father was like the minister of my coven, then Alexis was like one of those ladies who is on all the committees at a church I guess. Jeff called my coven's official phone numbers yesterday and got in touch, and she's the one who came to meet him."

"Wouldn't you be the one to handle calling your coven?" Vicki leaned back and closed her eyes.

"The last my coven knew I was being abducted by the Coven of the Thirteen. If I popped back up the logical thing to assume is that they _succeeded."_ Lauren explained. "Jeff's a fairly new witch, and getting in touch with established covens isn't weird. My coven was always up for new recruits."

"So that means Lucien Castle was always up for recruits," I speculated."

Lauren looked thoughtful. "I guess it does. That's a lot to figure out. My aunt Alexis was working for a thousand year old cannibal."

"What was she like?" I asked.

"My dad did a lot for Alexis over the years. When I got older she started acting a bit scared of me, but she told me it wasn't anything bad, just that I had so much potential it was like I was really loud to her oracular talents. She hated being touched, going out in public, stuff like that." Lauren sounded a bit wistful.

The pre-paid cellphone rang and I flipped it open, marveling at the relative shortage of smartphones back when The Vampire Diaries started. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Jeff, it's Vincent." I heard the smooth voice on the other end. "What the _hell_ is going on?"

I considered how best to answer for a moment. "Nothing good," I said after the pause. "There's a pile of Traveler heads in my hotel room, so you're welcome."

"Some of our people are missing; either you didn't get all the Gypsies in New Orleans or a few of those heads aren't the bad guys," Vincent said. "City Hall is calling us about new vampire attacks."

"Best Buy and some bar, right?" I looked at Vicki and she nodded. "Yeah, that's taken care of."

"Do I look like a mushroom to you?" Vincent asked. "I will not be kept in the dark and fed shit."

"Truth is we fucked up, Vincent." I sighed. "Right now the Ascendant is either in the hands of Esther or her children, and they're probably locked up in the Prison World. If they crawl out of that incredibly useful slice of hell I want to be as far away from New Orleans and Mystic Falls as possible. I'm not telling you where we're going because the fewer people who know the fewer people Elijah will think to kill."

"I thought you wanted to build something with New Orleans covens. You kept asking after Davina, gave us stuff, traded for knowledge and power. You gotta give me something besides leaving." Vincent sounded confused, which was good for me.

"Take care of Davina. Play with the grimoires and White Oak we gave you. I'm sorry, but the next step in my plan is something you'll want to stay as far away from as possible; because the next big step is going after the Coven of the Thirteen," I struggled to give the 'right' answer to his questions.

"Damn." Vincent said after a minute. "You and your crazy girlfriend move _fast_."

"I wish I could help you with the missing witches, I really do." I considered talking about the seer from Lauren's old coven I was meeting. "I might be able to find out something, but it might be a dead end. I'll call you when I know more."

"You call us if you need help. The Thirteen have been a plague on New Orleans before." Vincent said. "Good luck, kid."

"Good luck, man." I answered and hung up.

"Do they know it was Vicki?" Lauren asked.

"Not yet. Maybe they won't find out, maybe they will." I shrugged. "These covens won't leave the city if they can help it, so worst case and they want blood we just have to stay far away."

"They shared a city with Marcel and the Mikaelsons; they can't think vampire attacks are a big deal, right?" Vicki asked quietly.

"They had to share a city with vampires for centuries and just had the vampires die out. I think they'd do pretty much anything to keep new vampires _out_ of the city." I answered.

[hr][/hr]

Eight hours later we sat outside a gigantic hotel in Atlanta and gathered our nerves.

"Do you think Alexis had a reason for wanting to meet us in Atlanta or is it just a convenient place?" Lauren asked me.

"You're trying to second guess someone who you told me sees bits of the future. I wouldn't make a habit of that," I answered.

Vicki was ravenously tearing into my blood supply. We had gotten very used to blood banks that nobody was actually using in the Prison World; this could become a problem.

We crammed ourselves into the U-Haul and prepared a fresh protection spell for Lauren, the last spell of protection was relying on a mystic diagram and pile of bones in the Prison World and we couldn't check or protect that now, so we went with a simple spell to return her to life so long as I was alive. The spell should last a solid week without further maintenance and didn't cost that much power, though I would need to sleep soon. I could resist a lot with immortal stamina and a lot of blood, but I still needed to sleep.

Lauren's body waited in the van while she trailed me and Vicki as we went into the hotel. The front desk told us an Alexis Peel was waiting for us and gave us the room number.

"Welcome, Mr. Foxworth and Ms. Donovan." Alexis was an inch taller than me and quite beautiful with curly brown hair. I expected someone who looked more like Lauren.

"Foxworth." I frowned. "Oh yes, that's right." The name of the person I had "jumped" into. Jeff was not my real name either, for that matter, but it had felt natural. I wondered if I had ever told that to Lauren.

"Vicki's fine," Vicki told Alexis.

"Is anyone accompanying you or are we alone?" I asked.

"You're no danger to me," Alexis gave me a smile that made me wonder if that was precognitive humor or just a fact she believed. "Quite the opposite."

I frowned and tried to read the seer's mind, only to fail. "Psychic walls of some kind, really?" I asked. "It's almost as if you don't trust me."

"You do pretend to be an oracle when you are nothing of the kind," Alexis answered.

"If I explained what's actually going on in my head all it'd do is make people think I'm crazy, and the fact is I'm accurate enough I'm either a crazy psychic or somehow _sane_." I shrugged. "I guess I didn't expect to fool the real deal."

"Believe me, he's telling the truth." Vicki laughed hoarsely. "If he didn't know his shit he'd be dead a hundred times over."

"Perhaps." Alexis looked at me. "No one is that lucky, and no one is that good."

"So my reputation precedes me." I sighed. "Not sure if that's good or bad."

"I heard a rumor you killed Klaus Mikaelson and every soul he ever turned." Alexis looked at me.

"Apparently this included your benefactor, though I didn't even know he existed beyond a name and a title. In fact, I was under the impression he was a werewolf with a bright future from the limited amount I knew about the name at the time." I answered truthfully.

"Curious." Alexis frowned. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know if being psychic means you've got Lauren's instincts and I can't read your mind, so let's just bowl this one down; I read his name on a document written in the future. The reference was vague, associating him with powerful vampires and werewolves. He was also called 'the Beast' with glorious capitalization. I only learned who he was and that he was connected to Lauren much later."

Alexis looked surprised, which probably took some doing when someone had precognitive gifts. "Lauren, the little blonde girl, the Hole in the World, the Child of the Eye."

"The what now?" I asked.

"I had visions of this conversation before it happened, Wyld," She said. "It could have gone a thousand ways, but I thought I might be going insane, or perhaps someone was sending me false visions."

"Welcome to the club," Vicki laughed.

"So, let's lean into the skid of madness. Lauren managed to survive, beat the Coven of the Thirteen back, and is now after _murdering_ them all so she has less to worry about. If you've seen alternate timelines, or this future, or something else worth hearing my usual online username, well..." I considered what it meant to be talking to someone with a preview of the conversation.

"Wyld, the Jumper and the Bridge." Alexis sighed. "I suppose you are real, then. You are a demon and a warlock, perhaps an abomination or perhaps the herald of a new age. I never saw you until almost a year ago, and then you were everywhere in my visions. Lucien tried to find out who you were, but nothing we found made any sense."

"Not a surprise." I smiled. "I don't understand myself. I don't know why I came here, or why I have the powers I do, or why everything about my life is shaped like a fantasy or story since I arrived."

Alexis frowned very seriously. "You're about to bring in Lauren, now." Being a real seer was a bit more tactical than I expected, or perhaps she had seen what I had been about to say next in a longer vision earlier. "If I trusted Lauren to siphon my mental shields she would have learned about Lucien before she disappeared. That girl scares everyone." She definitely did foresee this conversation.

"Have you seen me refer to her as my soulmate?" I asked cheerfully. "Not as in 'I'm infatuated with her' but as in 'I have reason to believe we're cosmically destined for each other.' I don't want to come across as mean or untrustworthy, but if you're afraid of letting Lauren take your defenses down you should be afraid of what her friends would do if you _refuse_ such a reasonable request."

"The future may not be easy to read, but did you think I came unprotected?" Alexis glared at me.

"I certainly _hoped_ we wouldn't have a fight, but it's been a really long day." I sighed. "Lauren, get your ass out of the U-Haul and into this room. Not saying we'll have to fight, but there's no reason for Lauren not to be here anymore."

"Do all your social encounters go this catastrophically?" Alexis asked.

"Not really," Vicki answered. "Usually he remembers to bribe people sooner than this."

"She knows the future, Vicki; Alexis knows what we can bribe her with and hasn't asked about it yet. Either she doesn't care about it or doesn't trust me, and if a psychic doesn't trust me that is a wake up call for my life choices but..." I rambled.

"-Stop." Vicki frowned. "This is actually going _really badly_ considering this woman sees the future and agreed to meet at all."

"Weird psychic visions might not say everything about it, but yes." I noted that the window didn't look out over the parking lot, so I could not see where Lauren was. "If I had to guess, you're not actually that experienced with oracular talents, are you?"

"They're new," "Alexis" smiled. I found myself coughing up blood. "You are an _amazingly_ hard person to find, Jeff."

" _Run_ ," I told Vicki via telepathy. " _Find help_."

Vicki smashed into an invisible wall at the door and growled at the boundary spell before I saw a chair leg that had materialized in her chest.

**Lauren**

I returned my spirit to the area of the van and U-Haul, but didn't insert myself back into my body. Several children in what looked like private school uniforms had surrounded the U-Haul. There was a boundary spell on my vehicles, bound to my own life-force, but the problem with a boundary spell on a vehicle is that you cannot stop the vehicle from being _moved_ with a spell, even if you can keep it from being entered.

The "children" placed hands on the U-Haul and lifted. Another broke the piece of metal connecting the U-Haul to the van. The Coven of the Thirteen was the only faction I'd ever known to use child vampires. I noted bullets were loose on the ground; the vampires had tried to shoot into the trailer without success, as the boundary spell could prevent their penetration.

I sized up my body, found no damage, and entered it. My real eyes broke open. A sleeping spell _was_ clawing at my body, but it was not strong enough to penetrate my defenses.

If I had to guess, Alexis had probably been possessed by the time Jeff had made contact with my old coven. Lucien might have been able to keep her safe, but he had failed to keep my parents safe, so maybe his death had not mattered.

"Do you guys really need to hear what I did to the last of your kind I met?" I shouted at the wall, but I doubted they even heard me.

I controlled my breathing. Jeff was probably disabled by a spell, based on the blood he'd been choking on. If I could get to Jeff, the spell would no longer matter, but if I were one of my enemies I would be hiding his body somewhere inaccessible and cloaked as quickly as possible. In fact, my enemies didn't even _have_ to cloak the U-Haul, as I had already done that.

Jeff had _told me_ that he had found a tactical teleportation spell when he was working with Davina, but I had no idea what it was or if it would work to get me through the walls without the vampires noticing. I could open the trailer, but that would put me face to face with a small army of hostile vampires. There were illusion spells and cloaking spells to prevent them from noticing as I escaped, but it would take time to improvise that and I was dealing with experienced witches who were watching me.

The last time I was this close to defeat from these witches I had created the Prison World as an escape hatch, but I did not have a power source big enough for that and my old Ascendant was gone.

 _'Think,_ ' I told myself. ' _There is a way out of this. You are the Greatest Witch Ever. You are surrounded by grimoires and artifacts. You can win this.'_

I heard a massive crash outside as the trailer dropped. Whatever the immortal children were doing was almost already almost done.

Okay, offensive spells. I could snap blood vessels in the brains of the vampires, leaving me wherever they dropped me. That would leave me stuck, but not wherever they were taking me. The U-Haul had no windows, so most offensive spells were useless, but drawing on nature to harm the undead was relatively easy. I felt a voice of doubt in my head, maybe it was better to play panicked and terrified until I thought of something better?

The side of the U-Haul range loudly as something was smashed into it.

Without some preparation I could not make an illusion powerful enough to hide my escape. I had left all of my doppelganger blood and most of the White Oak with Esther, but maybe the long dead White Oak was enough power to do something important.

I eyed my father's talisman, a piece of his infant body removed for imperfection that I had used to channel his spirit. I picked it up.

" _Daddy_ ," I said. I knew he told me that he would not be watching over me, he was trying to find peace, move on, maybe he even had, but...

"I'm here." My father's ghost was in the U-Haul, or at least across the veil in the Other Side that corresponded to the U-Haul.

"I thought of calling you for a reason." I said, feeling surprisingly calm now that I was not alone. "I had a hunch, witchy instincts, something like that. Why are you here?" I heard screams outside, which made me wonder just what on Earth the vampires were _doing_.

"I wanted to warn you about Alexis, but I couldn't reach you. The Thirteen did something to stop me, though of course they couldn't stop _you_." Daddy had some kind of pride in his eyes.

"I love you, but do you have anything that can help _right this minute_?" I asked.

Daddy nodded. "I have a friend with me. I push on his ghost, and you pull, and his ghost can manifest as long as I keep pushing."

"Just tell me Klaus isn't there with you," I asked.

Daddy laughed. "No. My contract with Lucien hasn't expired just because we both happen to be dead."

"Mr. Castle, I presume?" I looked him over. "I thought you would be taller."

"There is a reason we stopped bringing Uncle Lucien to the house when you were three," Daddy mused.

"Alright. All I need to do is pull, right?" I asked.

"It required setup and dark magic on this end, but all we need is you to pull now." Daddy agreed.

Lucien smiled and took my hand while Daddy took his other hand. I pulled.

"Love, all you need to do is cloak and run while I kill those nightmares that Kol made." Lucien squeezed my hand and felt real, magic letting his ghost take visible form.

" _Invisique,"_ I whispered and then I opened the door with telekinesis. I felt I was fairly accustomed to the strange by now, but this was a stretch even for me. Several vampires were trapped under the trailer and all of them were twitching violently as the ones not trapped rushed around with spears. At the center of the mess was _Jeff_ , with the lower half of his neck blasted open. It looked like the trailer had been dropped because he attacked, not because the enemy had reached their destination.

Jeff's left hand opened and closed and air rushed in and out of his lower neck like a tracheotomy from hell. Something was clearly blocking Jeff's throat, so he'd made another opening. Behind Jeff a tall girl who looked perhaps eight or nine was collapsed with her arm on fire. Jeff turned on a dime, exposing a bloody spear in the back of his chest. Spear wielding vampires were trying to herd him towards the U-Haul, but some of them started to notice Lucien and I heard shouts and saw grimaces.

Lucien launched forward like a rocket, taking off the head of one of the "children" in a heart beat. A moment later Lucien was forced back to back with Jeff as he avoided the spears with all his speed, either because he knew about some dark spell on them or because they were pretty sharp.

"Nice to meet you, Wyld." Lucien said to my boyfriend. "I thought you were a goner."

Jeff did not respond, as his throat was ripped open. Lucien ripped the spear out, along with what looked like the immortal's ruined heart, but Jeff barely winced.

" _Vodus."_ I said, and a spear held in the hand of a boy stuck under the trailer went through the heart of one of his fellow vampires. " _Phasmatos Incendia."_ I pointed my hand at another and she burst into flames.

Lucien bolted into the opening I made and decapitated another of the twitching vampires. "I thought Alexis was exaggerating a bit when she described how we could meet." Lucien remarked. Jeff waved his right hand and his blood burst from the hole in his throat onto the spears, which proceeded to melt as Jeff managed some kind non-verbal spell.

"That's. Enough!" A handsome young man stormed forward with his hands held up.

"Not even close." Lucien blurred forward, but one of the vampires speared his head. I felt a flash of excitement as I eyed the witch who had come to the defense of the monster children. There was a very small chance he was a local trying to stop the battle, but he wasn't targeting the vampires, so I felt it was fair to touch him and begin siphoning. In the moment it took to touch him, he waved his hand and the trailer flew through the air and landed on its side and on top of Jeff with a very loud crash.

The strange warlock collapsed and twitched from my siphoning. I used a burst of power to toss the trailer off Jeff through telekinesis and then I whispered a sleeping spell into the warlock's ear before I turned back to Jeff, who had been impaled by three spears in the time it took me to knock out the enemy warlock.

I walked invisibly through the child vampires and examined Jeff. Jeff was clearly conscious but looked like a single giant wound in the process of healing; bones snapped back into place and he twitched weakly as he failed to breathe.

I siphoned through Jeff's hand and drained the spell that was choking him. Jeff gasped loudly and the kid vampires started shouting.

"You are bound to actually _win_ a fight sometime." I laughed and took Jeff's hand and continued to draw on his power. I began a chant that snapped leg bones and necks, fueled by the immense power in my boyfriend's body even as his healing slowed down. I pulled the spears out of Jeff with more telekinesis and he got to his feet before bursting forward onto one of the collapsed vampires and began to drink fresh blood. I had enough power to finish the fight.

[hr][/hr]

 

We hid inside a boundary spell in an Atlanta office building's basement. Alexis's body was to one side, badly burned and deceased, but death was a small inconvenience to me; the inconvenience was enough reason to interrogate the living captive first.

"Howdy." Jeff said after I woke the captive warlock. "This is Lauren, the bitch that's been kicking your ass since you killed her parents. I'm her comparatively nice boyfriend. Time to talk."

"You can't make me talk. This witch's head is full of _me_. There's no room for your compulsion in there, abomination." What was clearly a member of the Coven of the Thirteen glared at Jeff.

"Actually, you have a spell preventing me from reading your mind on your host body. Possessed people can be compelled. Lauren can siphon that spell right out." Jeff replied.

"You're an idiot." The man glared at him.

"True." I nodded. "He's an idiot, but you're a liar. I can feel the mind spell on you."

"What you call a mind spell is a link in my chain of possession. If you siphon it you learn nothing." The warlock told me.

"He might be right," I said after a moment. "I think he's lying, but if he's not lying and I siphon him then we won't be holding him captive anymore."

"Mind games on your captors. I guess I can't blame you for that." Jeff shrugged. "Think this one will break before we turn him into a vampire and throw him into a swamp like we did that kid vamp in Los Angeles?"

"No one would be stupid enough to throw away a valuable hostage like Gerald." The warlock sneered. "You know how much our children mean to us."

"I got carried away." Jeff answered. "I told him we'd do it if he didn't cooperate. He didn't cooperate. I compelled him and dumped him into some swamp under a cloaking spell and general anti-vampire precautions. I don't think he's getting out."

"You'll give Gerald back!" The warlock snapped. "You have no idea what we can do to you."

"Your default state is to possess bodies and use them to commit atrocities. I'm going to resist that as hard as I can." Jeff shrugged. "I've read Animorphs; I know being a meat puppet sucks pretty hard."

"No wonder fate put us together." I put my head on Jeff's shoulder. "There's a complete collection of Animorphs books in my house. I loved those growing up."

"I started reading them when I was four." Jeff laughed. "Well, my mom started reading them."

I frowned at what I remembered of the _plot_ of those books. "I'm not sure I trust your mother's judgment anymore."

"Hey, that's your mother in-law you're talking about." Jeff answered.

"Technically we're not engaged." I paused. "We're off topic." I frowned at the struggling warlock. "Never been siphoned before, right? You can't cast spells right now. Not enough magical juice."

"You will let me go unless you want to dig a much deeper hole than you're already in." The warlock looked up at me.

"I don't think so." I answered. "Vicki!"

Vicki pushed in a cart full of random instruments she'd found in the basement that looked scary. Box cutters and a few rusty tools, mostly,  
and a couple blunt objects. Jeff had called Vicki back with a telepathic messag _e_ before she had gotten far or actually figured out where to go to find help.

"I'm not sure this will work." Jeff looked at the cart. "I mean, torture is really good at getting people to tell you what you want to hear, but it's hard to even remember the truth when you're being tortured, and you won't tell it if you think it'll make torturers mad. This doesn't seem like a reliable technique."

"You're just being a pussy." I frowned.

"I remember reading that when the military did studies on volunteer soldiers they had trouble remembering _if they were married or not_ after being tortured. I say we call the bluff and try necromancing Alexis or sucking the spirit back into this body if your siphoning breaks his possession spell like he claimed." Jeff shrugged.

"You're not being practical." I shrugged. "We can do that _after_ we torture him for information."

"Psychic deep dives are harder on fractured minds." Jeff reported. "Or maybe I'm just not skilled enough at it, but we don't have a better psychic."

The warlock looked absolutely stunned at the conversation. "Don't you want to ask how to stop the war?"

I ignored him."Vicki?" I asked. "Break our tie?"

Vicki's face went all veiny and fanged. "Sorry, _Wyld_." She teased. "I gotta go with Lauren. She lifted a rusty wrench. "Matt really liked _24_."

[hr][/hr]

**Wyld**

I sat looking at the unconscious body. Pieces of fingers and toes, severed at the joints, were scattered around the basement. Vomit covered the young man's shirt and he had defecated shortly after that. The smell was truly atrocious.

"I recognize him, you know," I told Vicki, who looked far less sick than I felt was reasonable under the circumstances.

"Really?" Vicki asked. "I assume some kind of cameo on the Vampire Diaries?"

"The Originals, actually." I sighed. "Name's Kaleb I think. Host body to Kol for a season or so. New Orleans witch; and I'm guessing the Thirteen captured him while we were in New Orleans."

"Poor guy." Vicki shrugged. "I expected the fingers to grow back with vampire blood when I started on them. Guess I took things too far if we want brownie points from New Orleans."

"I'd rather loose a few digits than never wake up after being possessed." I shrugged. "We might still get a few brownie points."

"Back." Lauren said, jerking from the circle of Kaleb's blood we had drawn in the center of the room. "Lucien's fine and Esther is pretty sure our captive was lying about not being able to siphon the compulsion shield without freeing the body."

"What was the _point_ of this, then?" I asked in a flash of anger, pointing at the mess we had made.

Lauren blinked. "Duh, they wanted him captured."

I frowned. "What?"

Lauren shrugged. "I'm pretty sure they expected to at least capture _you._ Note the committal of Alexis, multiple attack spells. I think they were prepared to lose me again, but thought they could have you to trade."

"And why is this guy sacrificed?" I frowned.

"He ran in after the tide turned against the primary agents they sent. The Coven didn't commit their full forces to this. They expected us to interrogate this dude, and they thought they'd learn more about what we knew before they reclaimed his spirit. If we traumatize the hell out of him and confuse his memories of the interrogation, that hurts their plans."

"Interesting." I nodded. "So you want to fuck him up badly enough he's not even sure what we asked?"

"Pretty much." Lauren nodded. "Don't get squeamish _now_."

"Lauren. This is..." I paused. "Are you sure?" I finished.

"Jeff, you saw their idea of minions; a bunch of elementary school and middle school kids turned into vampires. You know what they do. Seriously, I'm not even going to _remember_ us doing this a few years after we win, If we want to win we can't afford pity." Lauren glared at the unconscious witch.

"I guess you're right." I closed my eyes. "We were going to feed his soul to demons anyway."

"We are definitely going to do that." Lauren nodded. "We can interrogate him in a stolen car. I think it's time to go to the Armory and ask them for the monster in their basement."


End file.
